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The 100 best novels written in English: the full list

After two years of careful consideration, Robert McCrum has reached a verdict on his selection of the 100 greatest novels written in English. Take a look at his list

• Robert McCrum reflects on his choices
• One in five doesn’t represent over 300 years of women in literature: a response
• What is missing: readers’ alternative list
• The world’s 100 greatest novels of all time (2003)

1. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (1678)

A story of a man in search of truth told with the simple clarity and beauty of Bunyan’s prose make this the ultimate English classic.

2. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1719)

By the end of the 19th century, no book in English literary history had enjoyed more editions, spin-offs and translations. Crusoe’s world-famous novel is a complex literary confection, and it’s irresistible.

3. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726)

A satirical masterpiece that’s never been out of print, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels comes third in our list of the best novels written in English

4. Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (1748)

Clarissa is a tragic heroine, pressured by her unscrupulous nouveau-riche family to marry a wealthy man she detests, in the book that Samuel Johnson described as “the first book in the world for the knowledge it displays of the human heart.”

5. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (1749)

Tom Jones is a classic English novel that captures the spirit of its age and whose famous characters have come to represent Augustan society in all its loquacious, turbulent, comic variety.

6. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (1759)

Laurence Sterne’s vivid novel caused delight and consternation when it first appeared and has lost little of its original bite.

7. Emma by Jane Austen (1816)

Jane Austen’s Emma is her masterpiece, mixing the sparkle of her early books with a deep sensibility.

8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)

Mary Shelley’s first novel has been hailed as a masterpiece of horror and the macabre.

9. Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock (1818)

The great pleasure of Nightmare Abbey, which was inspired by Thomas Love Peacock ’s friendship with Shelley , lies in the delight the author takes in poking fun at the romantic movement.

10. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe (1838)

Edgar Allan Poe’s only novel – a classic adventure story with supernatural elements – has fascinated and influenced generations of writers.

11. Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli (1845)

The future prime minister displayed flashes of brilliance that equalled the greatest Victorian novelists.

12. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)

Charlotte Brontë’s erotic, gothic masterpiece became the sensation of Victorian England. Its great breakthrough was its intimate dialogue with the reader.

13. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)

Emily Brontë’s windswept masterpiece is notable not just for its wild beauty but for its daring reinvention of the novel form itself.

14. Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (1848)

William Thackeray’s masterpiece, set in Regency England, is a bravura performance by a writer at the top of his game.

15. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (1850)

David Copperfield marked the point at which Dickens became the great entertainer and also laid the foundations for his later, darker masterpieces.

16. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s astounding book is full of intense symbolism and as haunting as anything by Edgar Allan Poe.

17. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)

Wise, funny and gripping, Melville’s epic work continues to cast a long shadow over American literature.

18. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)

Lewis Carroll’s brilliant nonsense tale is one of the most influential and best loved in the English canon.

19. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868)

Wilkie Collins’s masterpiece, hailed by many as the greatest English detective novel, is a brilliant marriage of the sensational and the realistic.

20. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868-9)

Louisa May Alcott’s highly original tale aimed at a young female market has iconic status in America and never been out of print.

21. Middlemarch by George Eliot (1871-2)

This cathedral of words stands today as perhaps the greatest of the great Victorian fictions.

22. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (1875)

Inspired by the author’s fury at the corrupt state of England, and dismissed by critics at the time, The Way We Live Now is recognised as Trollope’s masterpiece.

23. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884/5)

Mark Twain’s tale of a rebel boy and a runaway slave seeking liberation upon the waters of the Mississippi remains a defining classic of American literature.

24. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

A thrilling adventure story, gripping history and fascinating study of the Scottish character, Kidnapped has lost none of its power.

25. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome (1889)

Jerome K Jerome’s accidental classic about messing about on the Thames remains a comic gem.

26. The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (1890)

Sherlock Holmes’s second outing sees Conan Doyle’s brilliant sleuth – and his bluff sidekick Watson – come into their own.

27. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1891)

Wilde’s brilliantly allusive moral tale of youth, beauty and corruption was greeted with howls of protest on publication.

28. New Grub Street by George Gissing (1891)

George Gissing’s portrayal of the hard facts of a literary life remains as relevant today as it was in the late 19th century.

29. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (1895)

Hardy exposed his deepest feelings in this bleak, angry novel and, stung by the hostile response, he never wrote another.

30. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (1895)

Stephen Crane’s account of a young man’s passage to manhood through soldiery is a blueprint for the great American war novel.

31. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897)

Bram Stoker’s classic vampire story was very much of its time but still resonates more than a century later.

32. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899)

Joseph Conrad’s masterpiece about a life-changing journey in search of Mr Kurtz has the simplicity of great myth.

33. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser (1900)

Theodore Dreiser was no stylist, but there’s a terrific momentum to his unflinching novel about a country girl’s American dream.

34. Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1901)

In Kipling’s classic boy’s own spy story, an orphan in British India must make a choice between east and west.

35. The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)

Jack London’s vivid adventures of a pet dog that goes back to nature reveal an extraordinary style and consummate storytelling.

36. The Golden Bowl by Henry James (1904)

American literature contains nothing else quite like Henry James’s amazing, labyrinthine and claustrophobic novel.

37. Hadrian the Seventh by Frederick Rolfe (1904)

This entertaining if contrived story of a hack writer and priest who becomes pope sheds vivid light on its eccentric author – described by DH Lawrence as a “man-demon”.

38. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)

The evergreen tale from the riverbank and a powerful contribution to the mythology of Edwardian England.

39. The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells (1910)

The choice is great, but Wells’s ironic portrait of a man very like himself is the novel that stands out.

40. Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm (1911)

The passage of time has conferred a dark power upon Beerbohm’s ostensibly light and witty Edwardian satire.

41. The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford (1915)

Ford’s masterpiece is a searing study of moral dissolution behind the facade of an English gentleman – and its stylistic influence lingers to this day.

42. The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (1915)

John Buchan’s espionage thriller, with its sparse, contemporary prose, is hard to put down.

43. The Rainbow by DH Lawrence (1915)

The Rainbow is perhaps DH Lawrence’s finest work, showing him for the radical, protean, thoroughly modern writer he was.

44. Of Human Bondage by W Somerset Maugham (1915)

Somerset Maugham’s semi-autobiographical novel shows the author’s savage honesty and gift for storytelling at their best.

45. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920)

The story of a blighted New York marriage stands as a fierce indictment of a society estranged from culture.

46. Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)

This portrait of a day in the lives of three Dubliners remains a towering work, in its word play surpassing even Shakespeare.

47. Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis (1922)

What it lacks in structure and guile, this enthralling take on 20s America makes up for in vivid satire and characterisation.

48. A Passage to India by EM Forster (1924)

EM Forster’s most successful work is eerily prescient on the subject of empire.

49. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos (1925)

A guilty pleasure it may be, but it is impossible to overlook the enduring influence of a tale that helped to define the jazz age.

50. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)

Woolf’s great novel makes a day of party preparations the canvas for themes of lost love, life choices and mental illness.

51. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

Fitzgerald’s jazz age masterpiece has become a tantalising metaphor for the eternal mystery of art.

52. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner (1926)

A young woman escapes convention by becoming a witch in this original satire about England after the first world war.

53. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)

Hemingway’s first and best novel makes an escape to 1920s Spain to explore courage, cowardice and manly authenticity.

54. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1929)

Dashiell Hammett’s crime thriller and its hard-boiled hero Sam Spade influenced everyone from Chandler to Le Carré.

55. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (1930)

The influence of William Faulkner’s immersive tale of raw Mississippi rural life can be felt to this day.

56. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)

Aldous Huxley’s vision of a future human race controlled by global capitalism is every bit as prescient as Orwell’s more famous dystopia.

57. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (1932)

The book for which Gibbons is best remembered was a satire of late-Victorian pastoral fiction but went on to influence many subsequent generations.

58. Nineteen Nineteen by John Dos Passos (1932)

The middle volume of John Dos Passos’s USA trilogy is revolutionary in its intent, techniques and lasting impact.

59. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934)

The US novelist’s debut revelled in a Paris underworld of seedy sex and changed the course of the novel – though not without a fight with the censors.

60. Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (1938)

Evelyn Waugh’s Fleet Street satire remains sharp, pertinent and memorable.

61. Murphy by Samuel Beckett (1938)

Samuel Beckett’s first published novel is an absurdist masterpiece, a showcase for his uniquely comic voice.

62. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)

Raymond Chandler’s hardboiled debut brings to life the seedy LA underworld – and Philip Marlowe, the archetypal fictional detective.

63. Party Going by Henry Green (1939)

Set on the eve of war, this neglected modernist masterpiece centres on a group of bright young revellers delayed by fog.

64. At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien (1939)

Labyrinthine and multilayered, Flann O’Brien’s humorous debut is both a reflection on, and an exemplar of, the Irish novel.

65. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)

One of the greatest of great American novels, this study of a family torn apart by poverty and desperation in the Great Depression shocked US society.

66. Joy in the Morning by PG Wodehouse (1946)

PG Wodehouse’s elegiac Jeeves novel, written during his disastrous years in wartime Germany, remains his masterpiece.

67. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946)

A compelling story of personal and political corruption, set in the 1930s in the American south.

68. Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry (1947)

Malcolm Lowry’s masterpiece about the last hours of an alcoholic ex-diplomat in Mexico is set to the drumbeat of coming conflict.

69. The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen (1948)

Elizabeth Bowen’s 1948 novel perfectly captures the atmosphere of London during the blitz while providing brilliant insights into the human heart.

70. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)

George Orwell’s dystopian classic cost its author dear but is arguably the best-known novel in English of the 20th century.

71. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (1951)

Graham Greene’s moving tale of adultery and its aftermath ties together several vital strands in his work.

72. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (1951)

JD Salinger’s study of teenage rebellion remains one of the most controversial and best-loved American novels of the 20th century.

73. The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1953)

In the long-running hunt to identify the great American novel, Saul Bellow’s picaresque third book frequently hits the mark.

74. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954)

Dismissed at first as “rubbish & dull”, Golding’s brilliantly observed dystopian desert island tale has since become a classic.

75. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)

Nabokov’s tragicomic tour de force crosses the boundaries of good taste with glee.

76. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)

The creative history of Kerouac’s beat-generation classic, fuelled by pea soup and benzedrine, has become as famous as the novel itself.

77. Voss by Patrick White (1957)

A love story set against the disappearance of an explorer in the outback, Voss paved the way for a generation of Australian writers to shrug off the colonial past.

78. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

Her second novel finally arrived this summer , but Harper Lee’s first did enough alone to secure her lasting fame, and remains a truly popular classic.

79. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1960)

Short and bittersweet, Muriel Spark’s tale of the downfall of a Scottish schoolmistress is a masterpiece of narrative fiction.

80. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)

This acerbic anti-war novel was slow to fire the public imagination, but is rightly regarded as a groundbreaking critique of military madness.

81. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (1962)

Hailed as one of the key texts of the women’s movement of the 1960s, this study of a divorced single mother’s search for personal and political identity remains a defiant, ambitious tour de force.

82. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)

Anthony Burgess’s dystopian classic still continues to startle and provoke, refusing to be outshone by Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant film adaptation.

83. A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood (1964)

Christopher Isherwood’s story of a gay Englishman struggling with bereavement in LA is a work of compressed brilliance.

84. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966)

Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, a true story of bloody murder in rural Kansas, opens a window on the dark underbelly of postwar America.

85. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1966)

Sylvia Plath’s painfully graphic roman à clef, in which a woman struggles with her identity in the face of social pressure, is a key text of Anglo-American feminism.

86. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth (1969)

This wickedly funny novel about a young Jewish American’s obsession with masturbation caused outrage on publication, but remains his most dazzling work.

87. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (1971)

Elizabeth Taylor’s exquisitely drawn character study of eccentricity in old age is a sharp and witty portrait of genteel postwar English life facing the changes taking shape in the 60s.

88. Rabbit Redux by John Updike (1971)

Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, Updike’s lovably mediocre alter ego, is one of America’s great literary protoganists, up there with Huck Finn and Jay Gatsby.

89. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977)

The novel with which the Nobel prize-winning author established her name is a kaleidoscopic evocation of the African-American experience in the 20th century.

90. A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul (1979)

VS Naipaul’s hellish vision of an African nation’s path to independence saw him accused of racism, but remains his masterpiece.

91. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (1981)

The personal and the historical merge in Salman Rushdie’s dazzling, game-changing Indian English novel of a young man born at the very moment of Indian independence.

92. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1981)

Marilynne Robinson’s tale of orphaned sisters and their oddball aunt in a remote Idaho town is admired by everyone from Barack Obama to Bret Easton Ellis.

93. Money: A Suicide Note by Martin Amis (1984)

Martin Amis’s era-defining ode to excess unleashed one of literature’s greatest modern monsters in self-destructive antihero John Self.

94. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (1986)

Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel about a retired artist in postwar Japan, reflecting on his career during the country’s dark years, is a tour de force of unreliable narration.

95. The Beginning of Spring by Penelope Fitzgerald (1988)

Fitzgerald’s story, set in Russia just before the Bolshevik revolution, is her masterpiece: a brilliant miniature whose peculiar magic almost defies analysis.

96. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (1988)

Anne Tyler’s portrayal of a middle-aged, mid-American marriage displays her narrative clarity, comic timing and ear for American speech to perfection.

97. Amongst Women by John McGahern (1990)

This modern Irish masterpiece is both a study of the faultlines of Irish patriarchy and an elegy for a lost world.

98. Underworld by Don DeLillo (1997)

A writer of “frightening perception”, Don DeLillo guides the reader in an epic journey through America’s history and popular culture.

99. Disgrace by JM Coetzee (1999)

In his Booker-winning masterpiece, Coetzee’s intensely human vision infuses a fictional world that both invites and confounds political interpretation.

100. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (2000)

Peter Carey rounds off our list of literary milestones with a Booker prize-winning tour-de-force examining the life and times of Australia’s infamous antihero, Ned Kelly.

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18 Great Short Stories You Can Read Free Online

Sarah Ullery

Sarah suffers from chronic sarcasm, and an unhealthy aversion to noise. She loves to read, and would like to do nothing else, but stupid real life makes her go to work. She lives in the middle of a cornfield and shares a house with two spoiled dogs and a ton of books.

View All posts by Sarah Ullery

As to where to find great stories, The New Yorker stories are generally best, but require a subscription if you read too many in a month. I also like Narrative Magazine , which will ask you for an email, but their stories are free too. Tor of course has some great free stuff, and you can find most of the classics through Gutenberg . The stories on this list that are not from any of these publications, I found through simple Google searches. If I’m interested in an author, but don’t necessarily want to read a whole book, I look to see if they have any short fiction available that I can read first.

From this list, my favorites are Zadie Smith and Italo Calvino’s stories. I’d never read Zadie Smith, but after loving “The Embassy of Cambodia” I started On Beauty  (a 500 page book) and I absolutely love it. Both stories satisfied a reading itch I needed scratched.

Here are a few of my favorite free short stories you can read online right now.

“ The Library of Babel ” by Jorge Luis Borges

The world is a library that contains all the books that have ever been written, but most of them are indecipherable. Many people venture to the library to find the meaning of life. It reminded me of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld library.

“Perhaps my old age and fearfulness deceive me, but I suspect that the human species — the unique species — is about to be extinguished, but the Library will endure: illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret.”

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

This used to be my favorite short story, and I might only think that because I read it when I was a freshman in high school and I remember being shocked by the ending. It’s always stayed with me.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor

Another story with an ending that you won’t forget anytime soon. O’Connor was a master. If you’ve never read any of her work I would start here.

“In the Penal Colony” by Franz Kafka

It’s a chilling story. A man known as the Traveller is visiting a foreign penal colony where he is shown a special machine used to execute prisoners. The machine inscribes the prisoner’s crime onto their body until they die. It takes 12 hours of torture before the prisoner dies. I told you it was chilling!

“The Devil in America ” by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor)

Kai Ashante Wilson has quite a talent. This ties present day police brutality towards African Americans to post-emancipation America and a family of freed slaves that are living with the Devil that followed them from Africa.

“The City Born Great” by N.K. Jemisin (Tor)

Cities, once they are old enough, must be born. New York City is ready to be born, and must be led into the world by a reluctant midwife.

“Spider the Artist” by Nnedi Okorafor (Lightspeed Magazine)

Okorafor is a wonderful storyteller, and if you’ve never read her books, this would be a great place to start. And if you like this short story, check out Binti: The Complete Trilogy .

“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (Lightspeed Magazine)

Oh, you’ve never read Ted Chiang? Well, you must go out now and read this story and then read Stories of Your Life and Others  and his collection Exhalation: Stories . I was shocked by how good and complex his writing was. I had no idea that the movie The Arrival was based on one of his short stories.

“The Daughters of the Moon” by Italo Calvino (The New Yorker)

I don’t know. It’s either Zadie Smith’s “The Embassy of Cambodia” or this story that is my favorite on the list… I can’t decide. I think it’s this story. A story about the people of Earth deciding to throw away the Moon. It’s a story of consumerism. Luckily, I own The Complete Cosmicomics , so I can continue reading Calvino’s magnificent short story collection.

“The Embassy of Cambodia ” by Zadie Smith (The New Yorker)

After you read “The Devil in America” read this story and see if you can find the parallels. This was my first time reading Zadie Smith because I’d always heard mixed reviews, but if her longer fiction is anything like this short story, I’m in love. If you need help figuring out where to start with Zadie Smith’s books, check out our Reading Pathway guide to Zadie Smith .

“Sweetness” by Toni MOrrison (The New Yorker)

A prelude to Morrison’s book God Help the Child , this is the story of Bride’s mother, and her rationale for raising her daughter in a loveless home.

“Girls, At Play”  by Celeste Ng (Bellevue Literary Review)

“This is how we play the game: pink means kissing; red means tongue. Green means up your shirt; blue means down his pants. Purple means in your mouth. Black means all the way.”

The first four sentences of this short story sent chills down my spine. A superbly told story of the extremes of girlhood and adolescence; the pressures girls face as they get older.

“On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning” by Haruki Murakami (Genius)

Love at first sight, if you believe love is predestined rather than a choice. Fated love, to me, no matter how hard my heart becomes, still seems ridiculously romantic. I haven’t read Murakami in a long time but now I’m itching to pick up one of his books (I really want to read 1Q84 , but it’s soooo long!).

“Chechnya”  by Anthony Marra (Narrative Magazine)

This was Anthony Marra’s first published short story, and works as an outline for his novel A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon . It’s the kind of story you read while holding your breath.

“The Fruit of My Woman” by Han Kang (Granta)

This story was written in 1997 before the publication of The Vegetarian . The two stories share many of the same themes, and it’s evident that this story served as a blueprint for the later book. In “The Fruit of My Woman” the wife is slowly turning into a tree (something that also comes up in The Vegetarian ). The allusions to Daphne turning herself into a laurel tree to escape the advances of Apollo are hard to miss, but there’s no clear indication that Daphne was an actual influence on either story. Han Kang can do no wrong in my eyes.

“A Lady’s Maid” by Sarah Gailey (Barnes & Noble)

I love Sarah Gailey. This is a great introduction if you’re unfamiliar with her work. It’s Victorian London with androids — so much to love!

“A Bruise the Size and Shape of a Door Handle” by Daisy Johnson (American Short Fiction)

A hot and bothered story about a house falling in love with the girl who lives in the attic. I loved everything about this story. This is included in Johnson’s short story collection, Fen , and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Also, the writing style reminded me of Samantha Hunt.

“Hollow” by Breece D’J Pancake (The Atlantic)

Breece D’J Pancake died when he was 26. He was from West Virginia, and I would label his writing “grit-lit”. This story was almost too gritty for me. He’s the kind of writer that other writers love. His short story collection has a blurb from Joyce Carol Oates.

Want more short stories? Check out our post on the 100 must-read contemporary short story collections , 20 must-read short stories on audio , and the best short stories of all time !

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20 short novels you can read in one day

• BY Anne Bogel
• IN Book Lists , Books & Reading , Reading Challenge
• 85 Comments | Comment

Why we read short books

We all struggle with our reading sometimes. Whether difficult personal circumstances have killed your focus or lovely weather means you’re spending more time outside. Sometimes what we need is to build a little momentum in our reading life. And nothing helps build good reading momentum than short books.

This ISN’T cheating! You’re still reading an entire book whether it’s technically a short story, novella, or just a short novel (as many classics are). If your reading life needs a little boost this list of short novels is for you. Not only can they help you get your reading routine back on track, but these are great stories where the brevity often adds to the poignency.

We already have a stellar list of life-changing nonfiction books you can read in a day , so today we’re focusing on fiction.

What qualifies as a short novel

Essay and poetry collections are usually on the slimmer side, but we’re looking for fiction here. And while many young adult books come in on the shorter end, I’m mostly recommending adult books. Page counts vary but most of these run 200 pages or less, and deliver a lot of bang for the buck. (A few books push closer to the 300-page mark. I included these if the book has small pages, a large font, or tons of white space that make them quick reads.)

Depending on your reading speed, several of these books you can read in day. While you can knock one off in an afternoon, you will think about these books for weeks, months, even years after you put it down.

I’d love to hear when you reach for a short book and which novels YOU would add to this list, in the comments section.

And now, 20 of the best short books you can read in a day

Miss pettigrew lives for a day.

Author: Winifred Watson

I’ll bet you weren’t assigned this delightfully breezy Cinderella-ish story set in 1930s Britain back in English class. When a placement agency sends unemployed Miss Pettigrew to the wrong address, she spends the best day of her life with a glamorous nightclub singer, extricating her hour by hour from one scrape after another. Overall a fun, frothy fairy tale—but heads up for some unpleasantly dated stereotypes. 256 pages

Convenience Store Woman

Author:  Sayaka Murata

This quirky little book is a  2018 Summer Reading Guide pick, and is unlike anything I’ve ever read. Keiko was an uncommon child with worried parents until she takes on a job in a convenience store. They relax that she’s found a pleasant and predictable routine while at university. But eighteen years later, she is still working her low-level job, and doesn’t understand why society expects more from her than that. In fact, she doesn’t seem to understand society’s expectations—or how to conform to them—at all. PIck this up and spend your afternoon immersed in Japanese—and convenience store—culture. 176 pages

Mrs. Dalloway

Author:  Virginia Woolf

In this slim novel, Woolf weaves together two seemingly unrelated storylines: one following Mrs Dalloway, an upper class woman preparing to host a dinner party, and the other her “double,” a shell-shocked WWI vet contemplating suicide. Woolf used stream-of-consciousness style to explore the inner workings of the mind; this pioneering technique had a lasting effect on fiction as we know it. I read this myself for a past Reading Challenge , having previously read A Room of One’s Own but none of Virginia Woolf’s novels. 194 pages

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Author: Shirley Jackson

I didn’t hear of this short 1962 novel until a few years ago, since readers with great and diverse tastes kept recommending it. Not so long ago there were seven Blackwoods, but four of them dropped dead from arsenic poisoning several years ago and how that happened remains a mystery. Read it during daylight hours: its themes of family secrets, hateful neighbors, and mysterious deaths aren’t the stuff of bedtime reading. It’s not exactly scary, but Jackson is sure good at infusing a story with a creepy atmosphere—and the audio version sure makes it come alive. 162 pages

The Uncommon Reader

Author: Alan Bennett

When an unnamed (but not well-disguised) Queen goes for a walk, her corgis stray into a bookmobile library parked near the Palace, so she feels obligated to take a book to be polite. The Queen finds a newfound obsession with reading—so much so that she begins to neglect her duties as monarch. You can read this one in a few hours, but the power of reading to transform even the most uncommon of lives and the numerous book recommendations (from Jean Genet to Ivy Compton-Burnett to the classics) will stay with you much longer. Truly a must-read for any bibliophile. 126 pages

The Outsiders

Author: SE Hinton

This was a summer reading pick for my then 13-year-old, and he asked me to read it, too. This American classic is about a group of kids from the wrong side of the tracks in Oklahoma, and I’ve heard it compared to West Side Story. Unbelievably, Hinton wrote this when she was just 16, and it was published when she was 18. You could also read this title for the category “a book that’s been banned at some point.” 220 pages

The Sense of an Ending

Author: Julian Barnes

I finally read this 2011 Man Booker Prize winner a couple of years ago, in a single sitting on the couch on a Sunday afternoon. Structured as a love triangle, present day events force our narrator to reflect on events from his past, events that had been long settled in his mind. But as he begins to investigate what happened back then, he starts to wonder: did he really grasp what was happening back then? Or was he merely choosing to cast himself in the best possible light? This book, which the New York Times calls “powerfully compact,” is the kind that stands up to—and benefits from—repeated re-readings. 162 pages

Vinegar Girl

Author: Anne Tyler

Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew has been adapted for everything from film to opera to ballet to musical theater. Both Kiss Me, Kate and the 90s high school movie 10 Things I Hate About You (LOVE it) are based on the play. Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Tyler brings a witty contemporary retelling for the Hogarth Shakespeare series. This one’s on my TBR largely because of NPR, who calls this a “screwball of manners, more sweet than acidic, that actually channels Jane Austen more than Shakespeare.” 242 pages

What I Saw And How I Lied

Author: Judy Blundell

This was a dark kind of fun, easy to read and hard to put down, about a 15-year-old girl who gets mixed up in a decidedly grown-up brew of love, prejudice, and tragedy when her family moves to Palm Beach post-WWII. We read this for a spring  Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club pick and talked with author Judy Blundell. which only deepened my appreciation for a terrific story, tight, atmospheric, and heavily inspired by noir film classics. Stylish and thought-provoking; a 2008 National Book Award winner for Young People’s Literature. 284 pages

News of the World: A Novel

Author: Paulette Jiles

I loved this short novel about two unlikely companions because it reminded me of favorites like  Lonesome Dove ,  These Is My Words , and—perhaps surprisingly—The Road. A Western for readers who (think they) don’t like Westerns, featuring intriguing characters, improbable friendships, strong women, and difficult choices. 229 pages

Interpreter of Maladies

Author: Jhumpa Lahiri

This slim volume of short stories was breathtaking. Lahiri’s characters tenuously navigate the divide between their old world and their new, and taken together, the collection highlights myriad aspects of the immigrant experience. Lahiri’s gift is to turn ordinary experiences into moments fraught with meaning, and she does it over and over in this Pulitzer-winning collection. (I loved this on audio, and it’s  less than 6 hours in that format.) 209 pages

The Vegetarian: A Novel

Author: Han Kang

Following a terrifying nightmare, a South Korean woman trashes all the meat in the house and announces she’s now a vegetarian—an unconventional choice in a culture in which such choices sit on a spectrum between unsettling and downright alarming. Critics describe this novel as “Kafka-esque”, and reader friends with great taste have said this strange (and sometimes disturbing) story delivers a unique and absorbing reading experience. Originally written in Korean, this could also stand in for your  book in translation category. 194 pages

Fahrenheit 451

Author: Ray Bradbury

Bradbury’s slim sci-fi/fantasy novel revolves around a fireman who hates his job, set in the saddest of dystopian settings: a future with no books. Firemen start the fires in Bradbury’s future, because their job is to destroy any and all books as they are found. The book has been repeatedly banned over the years, which is ironic, given that the book itself is about book-banning. Definitely  It’s a classic, but it’s not remotely boring , and too short not to cross off your list. 119 pages

Our Souls at Night

Author: Kent Haruf

It took me a while to finally read Kent Haruf, but I’m so glad I did: he’s an excellent choice for readers who love Wallace Stegner, Wendell Berry, and Marilynne Robinson, as I do. This is definitely one of those books where the flap copy doesn’t do it justice; in this case, it just sounds strange. I found this up-close look at an unlikely relationship between two long-time acquaintances in small-town Colorado completely absorbing. Listen to me recommend this book  in Episode 84 of What Should I Read Next? to Shawn Smucker. 193 pages

Every Heart a Doorway

Author: Seanan McGuire

At Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children, children have a habit of stumbling into other worlds. Imagine Alice in Wonderland, but instead of one wonderland, there are hundreds—and once you visit another world, you’ll never be the same. Part fantasy, part mystery, part fairy tale (of the dark and creepy variety). NPR calls this “A mini-masterpiece of portal fantasy — a jewel of a book that deserves to be shelved with Lewis Carroll’s and C. S. Lewis’ classics” The impressive awards list for this includes the Alex Award, Hugo award, and Nebula award. 174 pages

The All of It

Author: Jeannette Haien

I just read this on vacation, at the urging of  Ian Cron , who recommended it when we recorded a future episode of  What Should I Read Next? (Coming soon!) First, the backstory: this 1986 novel never got the audience it deserved—until Ann Patchett fell in love with it 25-ish years later, and lobbied for its republication. Now, the book itself: on his deathbed, an Irish man confesses to his priest that he and his longtime “wife” were never married. He dies before he’s able to reveal the details. Over the course of several days, the wife explains their story to the priest—and the implications for both of them are enormous. 162 pages

Dept. of Speculation

Author: Jenny Offill

I debated including this one, because I had mixed feelings about it—but it’s undoubtably interesting, and so many readers LOVED it—plus I read it myself in a single afternoon. This is a portrait of a once-happy marriage that has lost its way, written in spare prose, with nameless characters referred to only as “the wife” and “the husband.” Sometimes lyrical, sometimes philosophical, sometimes experimental to the point of feeling confusing. Definitely one to discuss with your fellow readers. 194 pages

The House on Mango Street

Author: Sandra Cisneros

This modern classic is a coming-of-age almost-memoir of a young Latina girl, Esperanza Cordero, who is inventing the woman she will grow up to be. The story unfolds as a series of vignettes—some joyful, some heartbreaking—that draw the reader deep into her Hispanic Chicago neighborhood. Esperanza’s observations feel at once highly specific and incredibly universal, as she reflects on growing up on Mango Street, and how she eventually wants to leave. 130 pages

The Great Gatsby

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald’s classic was the topic of my first  high school term paper—and despite that, I still love it. This classic American novel captures the Jazz Age in all its decadence and excess, while weaving a wistful story of love and loss, told by Nick Carraway—but can we really trust his version of the tale? Fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby has built a mansion on Long Island Sound for the sole purpose of wooing and winning his lost love Daisy Buchanan, who married another man while Gatsby was serving overseas. 180 pages

Absent in the Spring

Author: Agatha Christie

This is a different sort of Agatha Christie novel, written under her pseudonym Mary Westmacott, that’s complicated, witty, twisty and suspenseful in ways that have nothing to do with crime. The title comes from a Shakespeare sonnet; the novel itself is a character study, about a woman who begins to reassess her life after finding herself alone for the first time—and is none too easy with what she sees. Christie claimed to have written this novel in an incredible three days. 192 pages

What short novels are catching your eye on this list, and what would you add to it? And—just for fun—what’s the longest book you’ve read in a single day?

P.S. Here are two other posts with short books: 20 life-changing nonfiction books you can read in a day , and 15 terrific audiobooks you can listen to in 6-ish hours or less .

85 comments

I read 84, Charing Cross Road for this category and it was so delightful. I think Chimamanda Adichie’s two books (booklets?) about feminism could be good choices also.

I love 84, Charing Cross Road! I felt like the author was describing my ideal trip to England down to the last detail

Absolutely, 84, Charing Cross Road!

Binti! If you like weird SF, or just want to dip your toes in with an award-winning, “own voices” title by a woman of color, this is a quick read. Like most SF, no need to worry if you don’t follow every detail of the unfamiliar setting.

Loved Binti!

Exit West, by Moshin Hamid! About 200 page with lots of breaks and wide margins 🙂 A lovely, quick read.

I read Agatha Christie’s autobiography a few years back and promptly bought her Mary Westmacott novels (all in one volume)…then never read them! Absent in the Spring is the reason I bought them. You’ve inspired me to get reading. Thanks!

I love this category. It enables you to pick up something you may not normally read because the commitment is not as high as a 500 page novel. Also, if it is one you really love you can easily read it multiple times. I really enjoyed We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Three of my all time favorites are short reads; Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and A River Runs Through it by Norman Maclean.

A must read for this list is “The Buddha In The Attic” by Jullie Otsuka. It has a unique writing style as is in First Person Collective without identifying the person talking. A bit difficult at first but you soon get a feel for the different voices. At 144 pages, it is a quick read, but, oh, so interesting. The story of Japanese women bought to San Francisco as “picture brides.” Tracing their adventures from their boat journey, arrival in America, and follows their new lives, filled with hope, dreams, trials, tribulations, hardships and heartbreak. First published in 2011 Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award For Fiction National Book Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist A New York Times Notable Book

I enjoyed Joan Didion’s South and West. A super quick read about her time in the South and in California. The essays are all excerpts from her notebooks during her travels. I also loved 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.

I read Convenience Store Woman this week and found it charming and quirky. It was a quick read and I’m thinking about it every day since I read it.

I’m waiting on that book from the library! I figured that it would be good since it’s on the summer reading list, but now I’m more excited. I really enjoy books that I can’t stop thinking about after I read them.

I am thrilled you have The Outsiders on here. I just reread it and it is still a fantastic read. I plan on picking up Convenience Store Woman simply because my 18 year old daughter has loved the Japanese language and culture for years, just finished her fifth year of studying the language, and it sounds like a fun read for both of us. I also want to read The Uncommon Reader.

I’m reading Of Mice and Men.

Yes! I just read this, and it’s such a wonderful short novel. I thought it was written so well.

Uh… I didn’t realize I was responding to a comment and post from 2018.

For the category I read The Penderwicks but am so intrigued by many of these.

News of the World is SO GOOD! My favorite book so far this year!

Both of Backman’s novellas can be read in one day or one sitting…..”And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer” And “Deal of a Lifetime”

I’ve read 7 of these books….and want to read the rest!!!! There goes the TBR list again!?

I loved reading The Silent Gondoliers by William Goldman. I picked it up because I loved The Princess Bride, and I wasn’t the least bit disappointed by the goofiness and heart.

I think Nutshell by Ian McEwan can be read in a day. It took me a few to read it, but only because I didn’t have the time to just sit down and power through! It’s an interesting premise too, and a nice twist on a Shakespeare classic.

I’m going to add quite a few of these to my too long TBR list. I’d recommend any of Laurie Colwin’s novels or short story collections for this category. Her novels are light but definitely have substance. And they are all short enough to read in one day.

Read Convenience Store woman last weekend. Am still unsure what I think of it! Quirky for sure.

Have read House on Mango Street also.

Not a genre you normally write about and not one I normally read but…I read Sackett last year and LOVED it! My dad has always loved westerns so I grew up with them on the television much of the time but I’d never read a true “western” book. Am glad I read it. It’s short too, so definitely can be read in a day.

I loved News of the World – it was an impulse buy at the bookstore ($3?). It wasn’t the type of book I usually go for but I figured that It’s not like I was spending a lot on it. It was well worth it.

I’m not sure the longest I’ve read in a day. I read fast and tend to read until I finish even if that means my family has to find their own food for dinner. I know I read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 8 hours. It was right after it came out. I was in college that year and was supposed to be studying for a chemistry test. I picked up the book for a study break and couldn’t put it down. The funny part? I actually got a higher grade on that test than any other test in that class.

I also read A Conjuring of Light by Victoria Schwab in a day. (600-something pages) It was like being sucked into this dreamlike state for hours on end. When I finished, it took time to figure out where I was and if what I just experienced was real or not.

I LOVE that I can just come to your site on any given time and discover new things to read – thanks for this post!

The longest book I read in a day was the final Harry Potter -Deathly Hallows. I was so worried about spoilers that I swore I wouldn’t leave the house, watch TV, or go on the internet until I had finished it. I read it all the day it came out.

I read What Alice Forgot (476 pages according to Goodreads) as well as a few other early Liane Moriarty novels in a single day. Recently, I read The Book of Essie in two days, but only because I didn’t start early enough in the day. Once I got into it, I really couldn’t put it down! I highly recommend that novel! And since I listen at double speed, I have listened to quite a number of books in a day, if I take the time.

I love so many of these, both on the list and in the comments! I really love 84, Charing Cross Road and Housekeeping. The Vegetarian was a strange one…..

I’m a big fan of Charlie Lovett’s books, and his Further Adventures of Ebeneezer Scrooge would be great for this – 106 pages including the Afterword/Author’s note. Coraline by Neil Gaiman is also a fun one especially at Halloween. And if anyone has never read The Little Prince, read it!!! 🙂 (it’s also great for a book in translation).

My favorite read in one day book is The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller. LOVED IT!

My last read was “A World Lost” by Wendell Berry. Loved it, and a short read, 150pgs I think. It’s one of his Port William fiction about the death of Andy Catlett.

Last summer as we were driving to the beach for our vacation I turned the last page of Our Souls at Night and was fighting tears. My husband thought it was bc I was emotional about getting back to the beach (my fave place in the world!). I let him think that. 🙂 I love that book so much– it’s short but it packs a punch!

I love that book so much. Have you read Kent Haruf’s trilogy? The titles are Plainsong, Eventide and Benediction. I adore all three. They are quiet novels which pull you in with their authentic characters.

My pick to add to this list is Let the Hurricane Roar by Rose Wilder Lane. It’s a wonderfully concise adult version of the Little House books (written before the Little House books).

So many good picks on this list, I think I’m going to start with Absent in the Spring.

I just put in a request for We Have Always Lived in the Castle at my library. Looking forward to reading it.

You got me! Just added The Uncommon Reader, Vinegar Girl, and Convenience Store Woman to my library holds!

The Uncommon Reader is one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it as much I did.

Thanks for this great list! I recommend Paul Gallico’s Snow Goose – I think the move Dunkirk was loosely based on this

Funny – 4 of these books were required reading for my kids in middle school and/or high school! Outsiders/Gatsby = middle school, Fahrenheit 451 = middle school and high school (different kids, same district), The House on Mango Street = high school.

For this category, I picked a book I *could* read in a day (213 pages)—except my life is super busy right now, so it’s taken me a lot longer than it usually would 😉 I picked Jane and Prudence, by Barbara Pym. I’ve never read any of her books before, but I’m loving this one! It feels cozy, if that makes sense. I feel like I’m in a small English village with the characters, and I love that feeling of being transported into the world of the novel.

That totally works! I hope you enjoy the Pym.

There are several of my favourite books here including Mrs Dalloway, and I have just reread Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Reading a book in a day is a slightly strange category for a reader, as I would say that most books can be read in a day if you are completely enthralled and determined to finish it. x

My TBR pile wasn’t out of control enough and then I read this post!! I love a good recommendation. Thank you!

Oh gosh, there’s *no* way I could have read Mrs Dalloway in a day! I’m generally a pretty swift reader, but I found myself having to read Woolf’s sentences and paragraphs a few times each, to try and discern their meaning. It took me longer to read Mrs Dalloway than it did Crime & Punishment! hahahaha. Some other great recommendations on this list, though!!

I’ve never wanted to read I Have Always Lived in a Castle before because I thought it was sort of horror/paranormal (why?? I have no idea!!)…but your description makes me want to try it! Especially now knowing how short it is. I haven’t read a good short book in awhile and could use one.

Some others I love: All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg, Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong, Reunion by Hannah Pittard, My Name is Lucy Barton, and The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips (super weird, but I HAD to figure out what was going on), and The Wife by Meg Wolitzer (maybe my favorite of the bunch).

Listen to Me by Hannah Pittard is also short. I read Goodbye, Vitamin recently and really enjoyed it – good call.

Try these for checking out paint samples. They are 9×12, easily stick and remove from walls, and are available at Lowes Item # 772876 Model # 10016 Spot On 3-Piece Removable Decal

I love this list. I remember a few years ago you pointed out that I tend to favor shorter novels, which I hadn’t even realized. 😉

I just read MOST of Convenience Store Woman yesterday! While waiting in line at the BMV which wasn’t pleasant but a good book (that I could get through quick) made it better!

Oh goodness, I’m thrilled and also horrified you could practically finish a book while waiting there!

Great list!!! I Adored Our Souls at Night–it was my favorite book of that year. Even the movie was good! I also loved Uncommon Reader, News of the World, Mango Street, Gatsby. I have Miss Pettigrew to read soon, want to read Convenience Store Woman. Vinegar Girl disappointed. Mrs D put me to sleep. A few other super-short reads: Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt, My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith (this is a stand-alone novella).

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If I were on your podcast, Dept. of Speculation would be on my list of three books I loved. I’m glad you included it. I highly recommend it; if you don’t like it, it’s a day out of your life, but if you do it has the potential to be one of your lifetime favorites.

Having said that, my book club hated it. I think they found the main character annoying. I loved the voice. I just looked for a quote, but there are too many to choose from. Just give it a try.

That’s so interesting about your book club’s reaction to the book! Was it at least a good book club discussion?

I loved Dept of Speculation! Loved the writing style.

The Old Man and the Sea is about 125 pages long, an excellent read.

Probably not going to be a popular choice here, but Anthem by Ayn Rand is a great afternoon read. Short, chilling, & stays with you forever.

I would definitely add Animal Farm by George Orwell to this list. It’s just under 200 pages and impossible to put down.

I read The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. It’s geared for middle grade readers and is told in prose. Beautiful little book, and only 240 pages, but due to the poetry, reads super fast.

I would add one book to this awesome list: Textbook Amy Krause Rosenthal. It’s experimental, a little odd, but so heartwarming and fantastic. You can definitely read it in an afternoon.

I didn’t set out to read An American Marriage in a single day, but that definitely happened last week. I strongly recommend it. I can’t stop thinking about it.

And the next day, I read the YA novel Saints & Misfits in about 8 (often interrupted) hours. I would recommend it for readers who like YA. If you don’t like YA, this one probably won’t change your mind, but it’s sort of refreshing for the genre in the sense that it focuses on an American Muslim heroine dealing with big-deal issues like sexual assault while also exploring interfaith dating, bullying, and family changes. Because of the main character’s faith, the romance in this novel is relatively innocent and comes down to a question of the standards she will hold for herself and the vision she has for her future.

As a teacher, a lot of my books are read in 1-2 days during the summer. Those same books would take me a week or more to read during the school year, when I’m busy, work too many hours, and am too mentally exhausted to process words at the end of a day.

I just finished What I Saw and How I Lied, thanks to this post, and loved it! Thank you! I’d really like to add two books to this list. The first is Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan. It’s a short novel about the staff of a Red Lobster on the night before the restaurant shuts down for good. The second is Kent Haruf’s beautiful novel Our Souls at Night. It was Haruf’s final book, a brief novel that had stayed with me. It’s much better than the movie, but the way! Happy reading!

Just realized Our Souls at Night is on the list! Sorry!

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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. Don’t read the book flap, don’t watch the movie, don’t read any reviews – just read the book. The less you know in advance, the more you will find it heartbreaking, devastating and absolutely unforgettable.

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AddSpy of the First Personby Sam Shepard. It was his last bit of writing and published after his death. It was made up of short little vignettes that really stayed with me

Demian by Herman Hesse is another fast read.

187 books in 1 year?! It took me 34 years to get to 1000.

I would add The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain. I’ve read this book many times because it is very short and a very delicious read.

Agreed! I just read The Red Notebook a fortnight ago and found it so enchanting and quirky; no-one approaches the French for whimsy, with every mystery a possibility and opportunity.

The premise of the novel (woman loses handbag – man finds handbag – man decides to track down woman using the contents of the handbag as clues) is also good for figuring out if you and your partner think the same. My then boyfriend thought it sounded creepy; I thought it was charming!

Heavens, I’m trying to bump my page count up over 20 500 this year, but all these short and sweet recommended reads will be great ‘palate cleansers’ between big books. My TBR pile has become a tower since I read your book and discovered your blog, Anne!

Here’s some more from my own read shelves (surprisingly, many classics; who says they need to be bricks to pack a punch?):

The Time Machine – H.G. Wells (118p) The Outsider – Albert Camus (119p) Siddhartha – Herman Hesse (121p) Anima Farm – George Orwell (122p) Night – Elie Wiesel (126p) The Lilies of the Field – William Edmund Barrett (127p) The Children of Green Knowe – L.M. Boston (128p) Bambert’s Book of Missing Stories – Reinhardt Jung (128p) The Turn of the Screw – Henry James (131p) Summer Crossing – Truman Capote (142p) The Longest Memory – Fred d’Aguiar (144p) One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenitsyn (182p) And anything written by Roald Dahl; The Witches (208p) and Matilda (240p) are my favourites.

Graphic novels also make a great day read, but they deserve a post all their own!

No one ever mentions Seize the Day (Saul Bellows). I read it in my last year in undergraduate and I couldn’t put it down. About 130 pages, I think, and it’s riveting.

You can read A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens in one day. You can read THE BIG WAVE by Pearl S. Buck in one day.

Great list! Poonachi is a recommendation that I’d like to make. It is a sharp critique of the patriarchal nature of the Indian society but narrated through a tiny black goat.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38318462-poonachi

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time 274 pp Who Moved My Cheese 94 pp

Thank you Anne for the list I loved it <3. I will include it to my TBR!

Sleepwalkers by Joginder Paul: a slim book about the Partition of India, and the psyche’s refusal to come to terms with it and live a divided, schizophrenic existence. A deeply moving piece of fiction that feels real even as it weaves through history and the surreal.

Have you read Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka? If so, did you like it? If not, it’s a short read and I found it to be beautifully written.

An Elderly Lady Must Not be Crossed pulls you right in and doesn’t let go until 2.5 hrs later.

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I was hoping to find some generally accepted criteria for story length. Yours are confusing. For example, what word length constitutes a short story vs. a novella? According to your ranges, a work could be either, since you state that a short story is from 1,000 to 10,000 words long (that’s quite a range!) and that a novella is 10,000 words to 40,000 words long. If a story is 10,000 words in length, according to your criteria, it could be both a short story AND a novella! Even more mysteriously, you leave a 10,000-word range of ambiguity between the novella, which, you say, ends at 40,000 words, and the novel, which, you say, begins at 50,000 words. What kind of story occupies a word length BETWEEN 40,000 and 40,999 words?

I am reading “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan, over the Bank Holiday weekend. 110 pages. Nominated for the 2022 Booker Prize and on the best-sellers list in Ireland since its publication in 2022 40 pages in and loving it.

I was going to mention Keegan’s “Foster,” which is emotionally gripping and easily readable in a day.

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20 Short Novels To Stay Up All Night Reading

Unputdownable books you can finish in bed tonight.

Yesterday saw the release of Samanta’s Schweblin’s terrifying Fever Dream . I know this is one of those things people who write about books say, but I actually mean it: this is a book that will keep you up at night—at least one night, anyway, because once you start, you’ll have to finish. You’ll be too disturbed not to. Luckily, it’s short, so you’ll only be captive for a few hours. Inspired by Schweblin’s new book, here is a list of novels you can read overnight—compelling enough that you won’t be lured by sleep, but short enough that once you finish, you’ll still have enough time to clock some hours before you have to go to work. If you can sleep, that is.

Samanta Schweblin, Fever Dream

This is a weird hallucination of a book—reading it feels like an experience, like something that happens to you, as infectious and mysterious and unstoppable and possibly magical as the disease that powers its plot. There is absolutely no way to put it down without breaking the spell, so make sure you’re comfy.

Jenny Erpenbeck, Visitation

A lovely, slim novel that tells the stories of the various inhabitants of a house on a wooded bit of land near a lake outside Berlin, before, during and after WWII—but like Woolf’s To the Lighthouse , it is not really about the inhabitants, but rather very pointedly about time, and the pull of place. The overlapping narratives and use of time even within narratives give the sense of colored transparencies laid over one another—though perhaps this occurs to me only because of the colored glass of the house’s windows. All this doesn’t sound particularly gripping, I know, but while I did find it a bit slow at the beginning, after page 50 I really couldn’t stop watching these lives unfold. Some brutality, some elegiac passages, some electrifying ones; much obvious intelligence at work.

Katie Kitamura, A Separation

This one’s a cheat, because it doesn’t actually come out until February, but mark your calendar for sleeplessness, because if you’re anything like me, you’ll read it straight through without stopping. The plot is, essentially, this: a woman follows her estranged (and unresponsive) husband to Greece, where she proceeds to look for him (and discover the mysteries he’s left in his wake). Kitamura’s spare language somehow seems barely able to control the emotion it signifies. In some ways, this is a meditation on the stories we paint onto other people, and how little we can really know them—which, honestly, keeps me up at night as much or more than any missing person.

Han Kang, The Vegetarian

Yes, like everyone else, I was obsessed with this novel—the story of a South Korean woman who gradually, and dramatically, removes herself from reality—this year. Reading it is as compulsive as its subject’s vegetarianism—except unlike her, you’ll want more, more, more, instead of less, less, less.

Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica

A surprisingly terrifying short novel about children kidnapped by pirates, elevated from its silliness by surprising moments of violence and introspection, as well as repeated flourishes of literary brilliance. Also, it’s funny . Take for instance, this passage: “Being nearly four years old, she was certainly a child: and children are human (if one allows the term “human” a wide sense): but she had not altogether ceased to be a baby: and babies are of course not human—they are animals, and have a very ancient and ramified culture, as cats have, and fishes, and even snakes: the same in kind as these, but much more complicated and vivid, since babies are, after all, one of the most developed species of the lower vertebrates.”

Paula Fox, Desperate Characters

At this beginning of this novel, Sophie Bentwood is bitten by a cat that may or may not have rabies. The ensuing domestic drama—wonderful and terrible in its own right—is then overlaid with this crazed, manic specter of disease that had me turning pages like a madwoman.

Donald Antrim, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World

For my money one of the best novels ever written, of any length. Something bad is happening in Pete Robinson’s town—something that has his neighbors building moats around their homes and all the members of the Rotary Club finding their inner animals (his wife is, apparently, the prehistoric coelacanth). Oh, and the mayor has been drawn and quartered. Even if you don’t want to know what happens next, this novel will have you flipping pages just to get to each new delicious surrealist detail.

Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation

An eco-horror novel that is a study in tension and unanswered questions. Who are they, the Psychologist, the Surveyor, the Anthropologist, and the Biologist? What is Area X? Where are the other expeditions (eleven in all)? What has happened here? Will it happen again? Now?

Joyce Carol Oates, Black Water

You’d think that the structure of this novel, a sort of mythologized retelling of the Chappaquiddick incident, would strip it of any of its tension—after all, it begins with the car going off the road. But as Oates goes over and over the event and everything that led up to it—from different angles, from different moments, from different points of view—the reader keeps hoping that that repeated phrase (“As the black water filled her lungs, and she died.”) will somehow be made untrue. And yet, we know it will not be. And yet, we keep reading, more horrified by the moment.

Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Jackson’s incredible, dark novel tells the story of the Blackwood family—the recently-depleted Blackwood family, who were mostly poisoned, via arsenic, not too long ago. But who is the culprit? And what will the town do to the family members who are left? And why is Shirley Jackson no longer around to give us such beautifully creepy books?

Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

A psychological portrait of a woman in distress that manages to feel packed with feeling despite its airy presentation—but more than that, this is an angry book, and the shimmer off the character/narrator/Offill’s rage is gripping all on its own.

Sara Levine, Treasure Island!!!

If you’d like to stay up all night alternating between laughter and groans (hey, I don’t know your life), this is the book for you. Its protagonist is a terrible person who decides to change her boring, wretched life by adhering to the values as extolled in the eponymous Robert Louis Stevenson novel. Yes, the one about pirates. Things do not go well. But at least they go.

Toni Morrison, Sula

I’m always surprised when I remember how short this book is—it holds so much in so few pages. Morrison’s gripping classic tells the story of an intense, dangerous friendship filled with secrets, betrayal, and yes, love. There’s something about Sula (the character, I mean, though the book too) that’s instantly unshakeable.

Franz Kafka, The Trial

In the category of classics that you forgot were actually super short is Kafka’s best-known novel, a harrowing, tense story of unfounded persecution. Yes, it’s unfinished (Kafka, I’m afraid, was not a natural novelist), but that doesn’t stop it from creeping up the back of your neck. After all, someone could be watching you at this very moment.

Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Invention of Morel

This novel is the diary of a fugitive, hiding on a strange island, who falls in love with one of the mysterious tourists that appear on his shores. A hallucinatory examination of the nature of reality, with a romantic twist, which won high praise from Jorge Luis Borges and Octavio Paz, among others.

Clarice Lispector, Near to the Wild Heart

I’ve always thought of Lispector’s first novel as a pulsing, beating thing—not just near, but the wild heart itself. It’s not a plot-heavy book, but the internal life of the amoral, incendiary Joana—and what she will do, and what she will think, and what she will say—is endlessly fascinating.

Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red

Anne Carson is likely the only writer who could ever have me wondering if, in the end, the winged monster (that’d be Geryon) is going to get the Greek Hero he loves (that’d be Herakles). As a novel in verse, this book frankly skips by—most of the time it will take you to read will be spent lingering over the lines, wanting to live in them a little longer.

Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

In this mesmerizing, sexy weirdo of a book (webbed toes are involved), a young French soldier falls in love with a Venetian cardsharp—except that she is no longer in possession of her heart. It’s in a palace somewhere, locked away, and he has to go get it. A sharp adventure that also asks the question: what can we lose in a single gamble? And what can we gain?

Justin Torres, We the Animals

I was sold on this book—a coming of age story told in luminous prose—from the very first paragraph, which by itself might keep me up for a few extra hours, looking for some of that more :

“We wanted more. We knocked the butt ends of our forks against the table, tapped our spoons against our empty bowls; we were hungry. We wanted more volume, more riots. We turned up the knob on the TV until our ears ached with the shouts of angry men. We wanted more music on the radio; we wanted beats; we wanted rock. We wanted muscles on our skinny arms. We had bird bones, hollow and light, and we wanted more density, more weight. We were six snatching hands, six stomping feet; we were brothers, boys, three little kings locked in a feud for more.”

Rachel Ingalls, Mrs. Caliban

The story of a disaffected housewife with a cheating husband, who starts an affair with—wait for it—a 6-foot-7 amphibious monster man named Larry. So.

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150+ Novels for Free! [PDF]

* If you have doubts about how to download free books from InfoBooks, visit our guide to downloading books .

Welcome, book lover! Here you’ll find a vast collection of novels to read and download for free in PDF.

We select novels from all genres and styles to offer you a diverse and updated catalog. Browse through our categories and discover the wide variety of free novels we have available for you.

Our mission is to promote reading and share the love for words, so we make sure that our novels are of high quality and easy to download. We’re confident that you’ll find that book that will keep you awake late into the night!

Do you want to explore fantastic worlds, solve intriguing mysteries, or be moved by love stories? Don’t wait any longer to dive into the captivating world of novels and start downloading the works that interest you the most.

And remember, we are always working to expand our catalog and bring you new stories that will ignite your imagination.

Adventure awaits!

1) Action Novels

Action novels tend to be confused with adventure novels because of their great similarity. However, in action narratives the events tend to be charged with pure adrenaline, in which combat, the use of special transports such as helicopters, boats, motorcycles, special vehicles, etc., are frequently employed.

Generally, the protagonists are able to perform all kinds of stunts and sequences of chases, or escapes. Also, the use of some advanced technological equipment is common.

These stories are very relevant in the film industry, where they have become the most watched.

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2) Adventure Novels

The adventure novel is a genre where risk, mystery, and travel are narrated. In addition, in this type of story, action dominates the scenarios throughout the development of the plot.

As part of its characteristic plots, surprise, terror, mystery, and risk stand out.

The protagonist of the work is usually presented as a hero, and physical action, daring, adventures, exotic scenarios, and changes of luck are constantly exposed. In these works, the plot is important, much more than the psychological side of the characters.

3) Children's Novels

Novels for children are those whose content is aimed at the child reader. These texts are those that society has determined as suitable for children to read, understand and enjoy.

Novels for children can be considered as creativity expressed in written form and with some artistic touches. This genre also includes stories or narratives with stereotypical characters to represent a social environment.

Countless works belong to this type of novel, so you can provide a sea of literary alternatives for your children.

4) Chivalry Novels

The novel of chivalry was formerly known as the chivalric romance . This is a literary genre written in prose, whose success and popularity in Spain was immense, in Portugal, France, and the Italian peninsula its success was less during the XVI century AD.

Their appearance began at the end of the XV century A.D. and they were written until 1602. After 1550 their popularity began to decline. These literary texts recounted the exploits and feats of knights.

Today these books are part of one of the earliest genres of novels and continue to be of great interest to many readers.

5) Classic Novels

Classic novels are those whose literary importance has transcended time and continues to be popular with readers, despite having been published years ago.

These stories contain global or broad themes that fit any era. They also have a universal appeal that makes them readable to a wide audience.

Additionally, these works possess a unique artistic quality that sets them apart from the rest.

6) Crime Novels

What is known as a crime novel , police novel, or detective novel, generally features a protagonist who serves as a detective or private investigator.

The story unfolds as the main character investigates an event or set of events, interviewing and interacting with the characters involved. He also investigates the clues or evidence pertaining to the crime.

Additionally, in its noir form, this type of novel portrays social, moral and collective problems with a high degree of awareness.

7) Dystopian Novels

Dystopian novels, also known as apocalyptic literature , deal with societies that, while pretending to be happy, cause systematic suffering to their citizens or degrade them to oblivion.

This novel genre emerged in 1921 by the Russian engineer Yevgeni Zamiatin, who launched his work “We”. This is how dystopia creates a future without freedom and privacy, where technology and science are implemented by elites who enslave humanity.

Other works of great renown that belong to this type of novel are “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley , “1984” by George Orwell , and “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury.

8) Epistolary Novels

This type of book is characterized by the fact that there are no narrations or dialogues between the characters, what exists between them are letters. The letters, also called epistles , are the means by which the author tells the story.

The main character, whether just one or several, is usually fictitious and is expressed through letters, addressed to one or several recipients. Through these writings, events are narrated, and even conversations are presented.

This genre of novel is ancient but was used mainly in the 18th century, and since then it has developed significantly.

9) Fantasy Novels

Fantasy or fantastic novels represent a type of literary text where fantastic elements are the fundamental basis of the story.

Within this genre of novels, we can find some subgenres, such as horror literature, gothic literature, and science fiction.

Any story that contains extraordinary and supernatural phenomena, such as magic, or the participation of creatures that do not exist, is classified as a fantasy novel.

10) Friendship Novels

Friendship novels deal with the meaning and value of the bond that forms between people, and sometimes between two living beings that are not human. Some narratives include unbelievable or fictional characters, but they always highlight what true friendship is.

Likewise, this type of literary work always seeks to highlight the importance of friendship, how through it or because of it, problems are overcome, and how it manages to expose the best of each character.

They are texts that seek to demonstrate a very appreciated and valuable facet of human beings, through extreme situations.

11) Gothic Novels

The gothic novel originated in the late 18th century in England, and is linked to the horror genre. The horror subgenre is the most popular of this type of literary works, and it mixes fiction, death, horror and sometimes romance.

The origin of this type of novel is attributed to Horace Walpole, an English author of “The Castle of Otranto” whose subtitle is “A Gothic History”.

Works of a Gothic nature focus on emotion as pleasurable terror. Among the most common and popular pleasures among readers was the “sublime”, which is described as a feeling that cannot be described capable of taking readers beyond themselves.

12) Historical Novels

The historical novel took shape during the Romanticism of the 19th century and has continued to evolve with great success during the 20th and 21st centuries.

These literary works employ a fictional plot and as a characteristic aspect, they take place in a specific historical setting and actual historical events may have a level of relevance to the story.

Generally, in this type of novel, the main characters are fictional or real secondary characters, instead of one that is historical and real.

13) Love Novels

Romance novels are written in prose and tell a story whose central focus is love. These works usually have a satisfying and optimistic ending.

Love narratives include the meeting between the main characters, the problem or conflict of love, and a happy or positive ending.

Within romance novels, there are several subgenres such as contemporary, sentimental, inspirational, chick lit, and works that combine love and action, science fiction, adventure, erotica, or history.

14) Medieval Novel

Medieval novels are those texts that were written during the Middle Ages, mainly in the European continent.

On the other hand, these novels were written in verse, since they were created to be recited and not read by the public.

With our selection, you can enjoy novels written in this era and those written in later years but set in this beautiful time.

15) Noir Novels

The crime novel , also known as roman noir in French, or hard-boiled, has been defined as a novel of a professional crime scene.

Its name is due to the fact that it was originally published in the American magazine called “Black Mask”, and in the French collection “Série Noire”. In addition, the dark nature of the environments in which the story takes place was also taken into account.

It is also known as a crime novel, as it is associated with a type of literary work in which solving a mystery is not the main goal, and in which the plots are generally violent.

16) Novels for Teenagers

Novels for teenagers are a powerful tool to cultivate reading among young people. These works not only allow the enjoyment of ludic activity, but they are also a didactic tool since they help with the development of critical thinking in the adolescent population.

Novels of this type have an adequate and manageable lexicon for young people, are an experiential reading, are not limited by taboos but keep the good taste and maintain the literary quality of works classified as novels.

These books are ideal for teenagers who love reading, or for those who want to get started in this pleasure.

17) Realism Novels

The realism novels came as an aesthetic current that broke with romanticism. This break applies both ideologically and formally, and occurs during the second part of the 19th century

This genre of novel is characterized by having detailed and extensive information about the characters, scenes, landscapes, etc. This allows the reader to imagine more easily everything described.

Realism novels are very popular and have attracted a large group of readers worldwide over the years.

18) Renaissance Novels

The Renaissance novel represents the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era. This represented a greater access of the population to the world of literature, as books ceased to be almost exclusive to people with money and education.

Also known as the Renaissance novel, this type of literature encompasses a diverse prose style that developed in Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries, just after the Middle Ages. The Renaissance was notable for an increased interest in classical values and wisdom.

By that time, specifically in the sixteenth century, the novel was divided into other subgenres such as sentimental, chivalry, picaresque, pastoral, Moorish, and Byzantine.

19) Romance Novels

The romance novel, also called a romantic novel , is a narrative literary genre of Western origin.

It is a variety of the novelistic tales that emerged in the modern era, including common settings and characters. Its stories tell of the problems experienced by lovers whose love triumphs in the face of adversity.

These literary works are very popular, as they usually offer a suitable story of romance and love.

20) Satirical Novels

In novels of a satirical nature, satire predominates. They are texts in which the authors use prose or verse to ridicule or criticize something or someone.

This novel genre is one of the first to appear and was perfectly represented in works such as Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) and the well-known Don Quixote (1605).

Several writers implemented this type of narratives, such as Charles Dickens , William Makepeace Thackeray, Octave Mirbeau, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol , and Dostoevsky .

21) Science Fiction Novels

Science fiction novels are derived or born from the combination of fiction, fantasy and horror literary works.

This type of novel reached a great boom in the second part of the twentieth century, thanks to the interest readers had in the future. This interest was driven by the technological and scientific advances that had been achieved during that time.

In general terms, this novel narrates possible events set in an imaginary scenario with stories based in the areas of natural, social and physical sciences.

22) Short Novels

What is known as a novella is a story of less than the length of a novel. Also known as novelette or nouvelle, it employs the narrative resources of a standard novel.

During its beginnings, the term novella began to be used as it was in Italy, giving it the meaning of a shorter story than the current novel.

But with the passage of time, the word novella began to be used to catalog all stories that were longer than a short story. This generated the need to differentiate the novel from the short novel.

23) Young Adult Novels

Young adult novels are especially directed to the audience that is in the middle of their youth. Usually, these works have entertainment, reading habit formation, and didactic function.

The young-adult narrative generally deals with themes such as tragedy, war, or love , very similar to stories for adults. However, a more linear technique is applied to works aimed at youth.

The youth audience has increased over the years, thanks to the literary works that have been developed for them.

24) Novels in Portuguese

The Novel is undoubtedly the most used narrative genre, so much so that it was considered to be a literary genre different from the narration, but it could not be separated from it due to the use of elements that compose it.

It is generally written in prose, and its content is quite extensive compared to the short story, therefore it usually contains many chapters that are related to each other, thus developing the story from beginning to end.

Most novels are usually fictional, however, great writers such as Miguel de Cervantes and Gabriel García Márquez managed to give a unique touch to their works, which are part of the classics of world literature, and serve as an example for current and emerging writers.

Enjoy this selection of 15 Novels in Portuguese.

25) Novels in Spanish

Enjoy this selection of 15 Novels in Spanish.

At the end we invite you to visit:

| Best Books: The Best 20 Novels [Paid]

| Gifts Books: The Best 5 Novels to Give as Gifts

1) Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Poor Folk is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s first novel, which belongs to the epistolary subgenre. It was published in 1846 and received good reviews since then. One critical review posits that this is the earliest known social novel. The plot is quite simple, though no less interesting for that.

It all centers on the correspondence between Varvara and Makar, distant relatives from the city of St. Petersburg. There they relate their personal lives, work matters, and also their views about the society in which they are immersed.

Both are poor and this makes them empathize with each other. Varvara is a young girl living with her father and stepmother, and Makar is a government official. Despite their growing affection for each other, it seems that life has no plans to bring them together.

2) Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Dangerous Liaisons is a classic epistolary novel, written by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos and published in 1782. It is about a cruel and Machiavellian ploy by the Marquise de Merteuil and the Viscount de Valmont, who lead a libertine life and rejoice in it through letters.

One day, Merteuil devises a plan in which Valmont must seduce the young and recently released from a convent Cécile de Volanges. In exchange, the Marquise would allow the viscount to sleep with her. Merteuil’s goal was to keep Cécile’s music tutor, with whom the naive young woman was in love.

But, the plans did not go as well as she had hoped and they will all have to pay the consequences of the tragic endings that will be unleashed.

3) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women is a novel that develops deep and human themes within its interesting plot. Published in 1868, after the American Civil War, it tells the story of 4 sisters: Megan (Meg), Josephine (Jo), Elizabeth (Beth), and Amy. All of them have to live with the detachment of their father and the economic shortages due to the political and social situation of their time.

As the novel progresses we see the psychology of each of the sisters, how they face the challenges of transitioning into adulthood, as well as overcoming their faults and strengthening their virtues.

4) The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

The Time Machine is a science fiction novel, written by H.G. Wells and published in 1895. It is one of the author’s most famous works. It is about the extraordinary feat of a scientist who builds a time machine. By discovering the keys to go into the future, this man manages to reach the year 802,701.

When he returns home, he tells his friends an incredible story about a human civilization that instead of advancing has regressed in terms of social and technological progress. And when he went even further into the future, he was able to observe the destruction of the earth. His colleagues don’t believe his story, but the man is ready to travel again.

5) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis is a classic of world literature, written by the Czech Franz Kafka and published in 1915. It is an unusual story. Many literary critics believe that it is a metaphor for the man who grew up in the industrial era, treated as a new slave, condemned to live with the mistreatment and injustices of the system.

It is a short novel that tells the curious transformation of Gregory Samsa into an insect. All the events unleashed by this strange phenomenon, create a growing narrative tension that does not cease until the end of the story.

6) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a novel written by Mark Twain and published in parts starting in 1876. It is considered a true masterpiece of world literature. In its pages, the reader witnesses the vicissitudes of one of the most famous children of the Anglo-Saxon narrative.

The story tells the antics of Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn, who among all the entanglements they generate, one day bury a cat in the cemetery where a murder was being carried out, which they end up witnessing.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and his friend involves not only them but also other friends and the inhabitants of the fictional town of St. Petersburg, on the coast of the Mississippi River.

7) White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

White Nights is a short novel by the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It is one of his first works. It was published in 1848, making it his fourth novel. The plot takes place during four white nights, a natural phenomenon in which the sun does not seem to go down completely, so that darkness never really comes.

The narrator is now in the habit of going for walks during the white nights. On those walks, he meets Nástenka, a woman who lives with her blind and controlling grandmother. After he defends her from an attacker, Nástenka agrees to be his friend, on the sole condition that he does not fall in love with her. And although the narrator makes the promise, as the plot progresses he does not seem to keep it.

8) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities is the 12th book by Charles Dickens, published in 1859 when he was already an outstanding and mature author. For many critics, the beginning of this novel is the best in the history of literature.

Although it was written long after the French Revolution, it is set at that time. These were turbulent years for France, whose people were suffering the horrors of injustice and abuse by the monarchies, and who would henceforth continue to go through the chaos typical of social transformations.

The two cities portrayed in this book are Paris and London. Both were immersed in very different realities that even contrasted, since in the former there reigned an atmosphere of weariness and rebellion, extreme poverty and violence everywhere; in the latter, on the other hand, there was economic and social stability that made peace flourish.

9) The Iron Heel by Jack London

The Iron Heel is a dystopian novel, written by Jack London and published in 1908. It is considered by many a prophetic work of what would become the current capitalist system. In the novel, London tells us about an oligarchic and totalitarian regime that ruled for 400 years.

In its last century, the system was shaken by working-class revolts that became stronger and more relevant. Society was then divided into three camps: the oligarchy, the proletariat, and the mercenaries. The latter took one side or the other according to their convenience at the time. Finally, the constant conflicts shook the Iron Heel.

10) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a dystopian novel, written by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932. Set in a future time, the story contains all the tragic but overlapping elements that lead a society to repression, totalitarianism, and extreme control of human life.

Humanity had been plagued by wars and their dire consequences, which is why the citizenry asked the political establishment to take total control and suppress any form of human suffering.

Since then, society was subjected to changes such as infertility, artificial reproduction, indoctrination from birth, caste division, the elimination of the family, the annulment of emotions, and sexual debauchery. This is how the World State functioned until the protagonist began to question everything.

11) The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Hound of the Baskervilles is Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous novel, starring the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes. The plot revolves around the “curse” of the Baskervilles, initiated with the death of Hugo Baskerville by a hound, all this to punish him for his wickedness.

In the year 1800, Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the Devonshire moor, so Dr. Mortimer goes in search of Sherlock and shows him the manuscript about the curse, and tells him about some hound tracks found near the body. From then on, the investigation of this mysterious crime begins.

12) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol is a short novel by the British writer Charles Dickens. It was first published in December 1843 and since then it has become a guiding story in the family traditions of both the United Kingdom and the United States, especially at Christmas time.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a self-centered and materialistic man. This prevents him from sharing with his family and being charitable to the poor, among other things. But, his attitude changes completely after being visited by a group of ghosts on Christmas Eve.

During the narration, we will see the conversion of this particular character that will leave us with important life lessons.

13) The Trial by Franz Kafka

The Trial is a posthumous novel by Franz Kafka, it was based on a manuscript that he left unfinished before he died. It is considered a masterpiece and has been included in several lists of the best books in history.

The plot revolves around Josef K., a bank manager who is arrested one morning by the authorities, who give him no explanation other than being prosecuted by the law.

From that moment on, he enters hell to try to defend himself from a crime he is unaware of and blindly takes steps in a trial through which it is impossible for him to access justice.

14) The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers is one of the greatest novels of the French writer Alexandre Dumas and has become the universal classic favorite of millions of readers around the world. It was originally published as a folio in 1844.

The plot begins in France (1625) when the young Gascon, called D’Artagnan, travels to Paris to fulfill his goal of becoming a musketeer. As soon as he arrives, he is confronted by the Count of Rochefort, whose identity he does not know at the time.

Once in the French capital, he is intercepted by three musketeers (Athos, Porthos, and Aramis) who challenge him to a duel. However, the feat is thwarted because duels were forbidden. From that moment on, they all become inseparable friends and put themselves at the service of King Louis XIII, thus changing the history of France.

Well, here ends our selection of novels to read and download for free in PDF. We hope you liked it!

If you found this list useful, don’t forget to share it in your main social networks. Remember that «Sharing is Building».

And remember that if you have a book to recommend you can do so in the comments.

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Last updated on Nov 22, 2023

Story Structure: 7 Types All Writers Should Know

Nothing makes the challenging task of writing a novel feel more attainable than adopting a story structure to help you plot your narrative.

While using a pre-existing blueprint might make you worry about ending up with a formulaic, predictable story, you can probably analyze most of your favorite books using various narrative structures that writers have been using for decades (if not centuries)!

This post will reveal seven distinct story structures that any writer can use to build a compelling narrative. But first…

What is story structure?

Story structure is the order in which plot events are told to the reader or audience. While stories can be told in a wide variety of ways, most Western story structures commonly share certain elements: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

A tightly controlled structure will answer a reader's questions, provide a climax followed by resolution and information at the end of the story , further the characters’ development , and unravel any central conflicts . In other words, it's responsible for a satisfying narrative experience that accomplishes the author’s aims.

Writing is an art, but if there’s one part of the craft that’s closer to science, this would be it. Become a master of story structure, and you will have the world at your feet.

Classic story structure

When people discuss different story structures, they often talk about the different frameworks used to analyze stories. When you boil them all down, all stories have certain shared elements.

Elements of classic story structure:

• Exposition. This first part establishes a protagonist's normal life and greater desires, and usually culminates in the inciting incident.
• Rising action. The protagonist pursues their new goal and is tested along the way.
• Climax. Our hero achieves their goal — or so they think!
• Falling action.  The hero now must deal with the consequences of achieving their goal.
• Resolution. The conclusion tying together the plot, character arcs, and themes.

These are all common ‘ beats ’ to most stories. It can be easier to see these moments in genres with higher stakes (such as a military thriller), but you’ll find them in almost any type of story. 

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Seven Story Structures Every Writer Should Know

Now that we’ve established the most essential components of story, let’s look at seven of the most popular story structures used by writers — and how they deploy these components.

• Freytag's Pyramid
• The Hero's Journey
• Three Act Structure
• Dan Harmon's Story Circle
• Fichtean Curve
• Save the Cat Beat Sheet
• Seven-Point Story Structure

1. Freytag’s Pyramid

• Introduction. The status quo is established; an inciting incident occurs.
• Rise, or rising action. The protagonist actively pursues their goal. The stakes heighten.
• Climax. A point of no return, from which the protagonist can no longer go back to the status quo.
• Return, or fall. In the aftermath of the climax, tension builds, and the story heads inevitably towards...
• Catastrophe. The protagonist is brought to their lowest point. Their greatest fears have come true.

This structural model is less frequently used in modern storytelling, partly due to readers’ limited appetite for tragic narratives (although you can still spot a few tragic heroes in popular literature today). By and large, commercial fiction, films, and television will see a protagonist overcome their obstacles to find some small measure of success. That said, it’s still useful to understand the Pyramid as a foundational structure in Western literature — and you will still see it occasionally in the most depressing contemporary tales.

To learn more, read our full guide on Freytag’s Pyramid .

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2. The Hero’s Journey

Campbell’s original structure uses terminology that lends itself well to epic tales of bravery and triumph — with plot points like “Belly of the Whale,” “Woman as the Temptress,” and “The Magic Flight.” To make The Hero’s Journey more accessible, Disney executive Christopher Vogler created a simplified version that has become popular amongst mainstream storytellers.

Here, we’ll look at Vogler’s streamlined, 12-step version of The Hero’s Journey.

• The Ordinary World. The hero’s everyday life is established.
• The Call of Adventure. Otherwise known as the inciting incident.
• Refusal of the Call. For a moment, the hero is reluctant to take on the challenge.
• Meeting the Mentor. Our hero meets someone who prepares them for what lies ahead — perhaps a parental figure, a teacher, a wizard, or a wise hermit.
• Crossing the First Threshold. The hero steps out of their comfort zone and enters a ‘new world.’
• Tests, Allies, Enemies. Our protagonist faces new challenges — and maybe picks up some new friends. Think of Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road.
• Approach to the Inmost Cave. The hero gets close to their goal. Luke Skywalker reaches the Death Star.
• The Ordeal. The hero meets (and overcomes) their greatest challenge yet.
• Reward (Seizing the Sword). The hero obtains something important they were after, and victory is in sight.
• The Road Back. The hero realizes that achieving their goal is not the final hurdle. In fact, ‘seizing the sword’ may have made things worse for them.
• Resurrection. The hero faces their final challenge — a climactic test that hinges on everything they’ve learned over their journey.
• Return with the Elixir. Having triumphed, our protagonist returns to their old life. Dorothy returns to Kansas; Iron Man holds a press conference to blow his own trumpet .

While Vogler’s simplified steps still retain some of Campbell’s mythological language with its references to swords and elixirs, the framework can be applied to almost any genre of fiction. To see how a ‘realistic’ story can adhere to this structure, check out our guide to the hero’s journey in which we analyze Rocky through this very lens.

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3. Three Act Structure

Act 1: Setup

• Exposition . The status quo or ‘ordinary world’ is established.
• Inciting Incident. An event that sets the story in motion.
• Plot Point One. The protagonist decides to tackle the challenge head-on. She ‘crosses the threshold,’ and the story is now truly moving.

Act 2: Confrontation

• Rising Action. The story's true stakes become clear; our hero grows familiar with her ‘new world’ and has her first encounters with some enemies and allies. (see Tests, Allies, Enemies)
• Midpoint. An event that upends the protagonist’s mission. (Similar to the climax in Freytag’s pyramid)
• Plot Point Two. In the wake of the disorienting midpoint, the protagonist is tested — and fails. Her ability to succeed is now in doubt.

Act 3: Resolution

• Pre Climax. The night is darkest before dawn. The protagonist must pull herself together and choose between decisive action and failure.
• Climax. She faces off against her antagonist one last time. Will she prevail?
• Denouement. All loose ends are tied up. The reader discovers the consequences of the climax. A new status quo is established.

When we speak about a confrontation with an antagonist, this doesn’t always mean a fight to the death. In some cases, the antagonist might be a love rival, a business competitor, or merely an internal or environmental conflict that our protagonist has been struggling with the entire story.

If you’re interested in using this model to plot your own story, read our guide to the three-act structure , and be sure to sign up to our free course on the subject.

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4. Dan Harmon's Story Circle

Another variation on Campbell’s monomyth structure, the Story Circle is an approach developed by Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon. Again, heavily inspired by the Hero's Journey, the benefit of Harmon's approach is its focus on the protagonist's character arc. Instead of referring to abstract concepts like 'story midpoint' and 'denouement', each beat in the story circle forces the writer to think about the character's wants and needs.

• A character is in a zone of comfort... This is the establishment of the status quo.
• But they want something... This 'want' could be something long-standing and brought to the fore by an inciting incident.
• They enter an unfamiliar situation... The protagonist must do something new in their pursuit of the thing they want.
• Adapt to it... Faced with some challenges, they struggle then begin to succeed.
• Get what they wanted... Usually a false victory.
• Pay a heavy price for it... They realize that what they 'wanted' wasn't what they 'needed'.
• Then return to their familiar situation... armed with a new truth.
• Having changed... For better or worse.

Created by a writer whose chosen medium is the 30-minute sitcom, this structure is worded in a way that sidesteps the need for a protagonist to undergo life-changing transformations with each story. After all, for a comedy to continue for six seasons (and a movie) its characters can't completely transform at the end of each episode. They can, however, learn small truths about themselves and the world around them — which, like all humans, they can quickly forget about if next week's episode calls for it.

To learn more and see this structure applied to an episode of Rick and Morty, check out our full post on Dan Harmon's Story Circle .

Side note: for this kind of character-driven plot (and, indeed, for all of these structures), you're going to want to know you're protagonist inside and out. Why not check out some of our character development exercises for help fleshing your characters out, like the profile template below.

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5. Fichtean Curve

Fleshed out in John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction , the Fichtean Curve is a narrative structure that puts our main characters through a series of many obstacles on their way to achieving their overarching goals. Resembling Freytag’s Pyramid, it encourages authors to write narratives packed with tension and mini-crises that keep readers eager to reach the climax.

Bypassing the “ordinary world” setup of many other structures, the Fichtean Curve starts with the inciting incident and goes straight into the rising action. Multiple crises occur, each of which contributes to the readers’ overall understanding of the narrative — replacing the need for the initial exposition.

To discuss this unusual structure, it’s perhaps best to see it in use. We’ll use Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You as an example. Needless to say, spoilers ahead.

Rising Action

• First crisis. Lydia’s family is informed her body was found in a nearby lake. From this first crisis's climax, the narrative flashes back to provide exposition and details of the family’s history.
• Second crisis. In flashbacks, we discover that, 11 years prior, Marilyn abandoned her family to resume her undergraduate studies. In her absence, the family begins to fall apart. Marilyn learns she is pregnant and is forced to return home. Having lost her opportunity for further education, she places the pressure of academic success on her children.
• Third crisis. Back in the present, Lydia’s father, James, is cheating on Marilyn. The police decide to close the investigation, ruling Lydia’s death a suicide. This results in a massive argument between her parents, and James leaves to stay with the “other woman.”
• Fourth crisis. Flashback to the day Lydia died. From her perspective, we see that she’s misunderstood by her parents. She mourns her brother’s impending departure for college, leaving her as the sole focus of her parents’ pressure. Isolated, she tries to seduce a friend — who rejects her advances and explains he’s in love with her brother.
• Lydia takes a boat into the lake in the middle of the night — determined to overcome her fear of water and reclaim control of her life. Lydia jumps off the boat, into the water, and out of this life. As in a classical tragedy, this moment is both devastating and inevitable.

Falling Action

• Some level of resolution is achieved, and readers get to at least glimpse the “new norm” for the characters. Lydia’s family lean on one another in their grief. While they may never be able to make their amends with Lydia, they can learn from her death. Not all of the loose ends are tied off, but readers infer the family is on the long road to recovery.

Note: In the rising action stage, all of the crises should build tension towards — and correspond with — the story’s major climax. Like the three-act narrative structure, the Fichtean Curve’s climax typically occurs two-thirds through the book.

While this structure lends itself well to flashback-heavy novels such as Everything I Never Told You, it is also incredibly common in theatre. In stage plays like The Cherry Orchard and A Doll’s House , the action takes place in a fixed time and place, but backstory and character development are revealed through moments of high drama that occur before the audience’s eyes.

For a deeper look at this structure, head to our full post on the Fichtean Curve .

6. Save the Cat Beat Sheet

Another variation of the three-act structure, this framework created by Hollywood screenwriter Blake Snyder, has been widely championed by storytellers across many media forms.

Fun fact: Save the Cat is named for a moment in the set up of a story (usually a film) where our hero does something to endear himself to the audience.

While many structures are reluctant to prescribe exactly when in a story the various beats should take place, Snyder and Save the Cat have no such qualms. The number in the square brackets below refers to the page that the beat should take place — assuming you’re writing a 110-page screenplay.

• Opening Image [1]. The first shot of the film. If you’re starting a novel , this would be an opening paragraph or scene that sucks readers into the world of your story.
• Set-up [1-10]. Establishing the ‘ordinary world’ of your protagonist. What does he want? What is he missing out on?
• Theme Stated [5]. During the setup, hint at what your story is really about — the truth that your protagonist will discover by the end.
• Catalyst [12]. The inciting incident!
• Debate [12-25]. The hero refuses the call to adventure. He tries to avoid the conflict before they are forced into action.
• Break into Two [25]. The protagonist makes an active choice and the journey begins in earnest.
• B Story [30]. A subplot kicks in. Often romantic in nature, the protagonist’s subplot should serve to highlight the theme.
• The Promise of the Premise [30-55]. Often called the ‘fun and games’ stage, this is usually a highly entertaining section where the writer delivers the goods. If you promised an exciting detective story, we’d see the detective in action. If you promised a goofy story of people falling in love, let’s go on some charmingly awkward dates.
• Midpoint [55]. A plot twist occurs that ups the stakes and makes the hero’s goal harder to achieve — or makes them focus on a new, more important goal.
• Bad Guys Close In [55-75]. The tension ratchets up. The hero’s obstacles become greater, his plan falls apart, and he is on the back foot.
• All is Lost [75]. The hero hits rock bottom. He loses everything he’s gained so far, and things are looking bleak. The hero is overpowered by the villain; a mentor dies; our lovebirds have an argument and break up.
• Dark Night of the Soul [75-85-ish]. Having just lost everything, the hero shambles around the city in a minor-key musical montage before discovering some “new information” that reveals exactly what he needs to do if he wants to take another crack at success. (This new information is often delivered through the B-Story)
• Break into Three [85]. Armed with this new information, our protagonist decides to try once more!
• Finale [85-110]. The hero confronts the antagonist or whatever the source of the primary conflict is. The truth that eluded him at the start of the story (established in step three and accentuated by the B Story) is now clear, allowing him to resolve their story.
• Final Image [110]. A final moment or scene that crystallizes how the character has changed. It’s a reflection, in some way, of the opening image.

Some writers may find this structure too prescriptive, but it’s incredible to see how many mainstream stories seem to adhere to it — either by design or coincidence. Over on the Save the Cat website, there are countless examples of films and novels analyzed with Snyder’s 15 beats . You’ll be surprised how accurate some of the timings are for each of the beats.

For a deeper dive into this framework, and to watch this video where Reedsy’s Shaelin plots out a Middle-Grade fantasy novel using Snyder’s method — head to our full post on the Save the Cat Beat Sheet .

7. Seven-Point Story Structure

A slightly less detailed adaptation of The Hero’s Journey, the Seven-Point Story Structure focuses specifically on the highs and lows of a narrative arc .

According to author Dan Wells, who developed the Seven-Point Story Structure , writers are encouraged to start at the end, with the resolution, and work their way back to the starting point: the hook. With the ending in mind, they can have their protagonist and plot begin in a state that best contrasts the finale — since this structure is all about dramatic changes from beginning to end.

• The Hook. Draw readers in by explaining the protagonist’s current situation. Their state of being at the beginning of the novel should be in direct contrast to what it will be at the end of the novel.
• Plot Point 1. Whether it’s a person, an idea, an inciting incident, or something else — there should be a "Call to Adventure" of sorts that sets the narrative and character development in motion.
• Pinch Point 1. Things can’t be all sunshine and roses for your protagonist. Something should go wrong here that applies pressure to the main character, forcing them to step up and solve the problem.
• Midpoint. A “Turning Point” wherein the main character changes from a passive force to an active force in the story. Whatever the narrative’s main conflict is, the protagonist decides to start meeting it head-on.
• Pinch Point 2. The second pinch point involves another blow to the protagonist — things go even more awry than they did during the first pinch point. This might involve the passing of a mentor, the failure of a plan, the reveal of a traitor, etc.
• Plot Point 2. After the calamity of Pinch Point 2, the protagonist learns that they’ve actually had the key to solving the conflict the whole time.
• Resolution. The story’s primary conflict is resolved — and the character goes through the final bit of development necessary to transform them from who they were at the start of the novel.

For a deeper look into Wells's approach — including the key to using it — check out our full post on the seven-point story structure .

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: story structures aren't an exact science, and you should feel welcome to stray from the path they present. They're simply there to help you find your narrative's footing — a blueprint for the world you're about to start building.

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17 New Books Coming in April

New novels from Emily Henry, Jo Piazza and Rachel Khong; a history of five ballerinas at the Dance Theater of Harlem; Salman Rushdie’s memoir and more.

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The Cemetery of Untold Stories , by Julia Alvarez

After decades in America, a Dominican writer named Alma Cruz “retires” to a scrappy piece of real estate she’s inherited in her homeland. But a riot of stories — historical, magical, irrepressible — are still fighting to be told, so she builds a graveyard where their spirits can rise once more.

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The felony that opens Tometich’s sweet, sharp memoir sets the tone for the whole story: Her mother has been arrested for brandishing a gun at a would-be mango thief. No one is shocked — Tometich’s mother is a force of nature, and her beloved mango tree is the metaphorical center of their sometimes chaotic, often complicated family.

Little, Brown, April 2

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When the British naval officer James Cook set off for his voyage across the globe in 1776, his ostensible goal was to ferry Mai, a handsome and witty Tahitian man, back to Polynesia. But, as Sides shows in this vivid recounting, the leitmotif of what became Cook’s final journey was his confrontation with the dire results of his meddling in the region.

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The Wives , by Simone Gorrindo

When Gorrindo’s husband joined an army unit and was promptly deployed overseas, the New York-based journalist was not just relocated to a base in Georgia, but to a completely new life. “The Wives” — both memoir and love letter — is a tribute to the community of women she found there, a unique source of support unlike any she had ever known.

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Knife , by Salman Rushdie

Rushdie’s new memoir is a detailed account of the harrowing events of Aug. 12, 2022, when he was attacked onstage at a public talk. More than 30 years after the supreme leader of Iran issued a fatwa on his life, the writer turns to his craft to “make sense of the unthinkable.”

Random House, April 16

A Body Made of Glass , by Caroline Crampton

Crampton, a British journalist, weaves her own cancer diagnosis, and its cure, into this cultural history of hypochondria, which also considers such literary figures as Charles Darwin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Philip Larkin.

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Funny Story , by Emily Henry

Henry’s latest contribution to the library of lightheartedness is a novel of opposites. What happens when spurned lovers team up against the people who hurt them? Bonus points because one character in this love square happens to be a small town librarian.

Berkley, April 23

Reboot , by Justin Taylor

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Pantheon, April 23

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Khong’s sophomore novel is a tale about the evolution of one family over the course of generations. As the story opens, Lily, who is the daughter of Chinese immigrants, begins a love affair with Matthew, the wealthy son of an aristocratic family. But as Lily and her child eventually learn, their family history is more complicated than it seems.

The Swans of Harlem , by Karen Valby

In the wake of M.L.K.’s assassination, the George Balanchine protégé Arthur Mitchell felt compelled to establish a space where Black bodies could break the lily-white codes of ballet and hold center stage. And so the Dance Theater of Harlem was born — and with it, the careers of five “swans” whose journey through the cultural, political and physical tumult of the times Valby chronicles here.

Pantheon, April 30

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How did gender become a scary word? Judith Butler, the theorist who got us talking about the subject , has answers.

You never know what’s going to go wrong in these graphic novels, where Circus tigers, giant spiders, shifting borders and motherhood all threaten to end life as we know it .

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Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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Here Are the 12 New Books You Should Read in April

These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.

T he best books coming in April include historian Erik Larson ’s latest nonfiction thriller, former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey ’s meditation on writing, and Salman Rushdie ’s agonizing account of the brutal knife attack he suffered two years ago. Other notable releases include a pair of career-spanning anthologies that celebrate the works of cultural critic Maggie Nelson and historian Nell Irvin Painter , as well as Amor Towles ’ first collection of short stories. Alyssa Cole ’s new mystery features a protagonist struggling with dissociative identity disorder, while former therapist Patric Gagne hopes to recontextualize the term “sociopath” with her debut memoir of the same name. 

Here, the 12 best books to read this month.

The Cemetery of Untold Stories , Julia Alvarez (April 2)

In Julia Alvarez ’s seventh adult novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, acclaimed writer Alma Cruz inherits a piece of her homeland, the Dominican Republic. After the death of her close friend and fellow author, Alma decides to retire and turn her plot of land into a graveyard for the unpublished tales she’d like to finally put to rest. But just because Alma is ready to abandon her characters, some of whom are based on real historical figures, it doesn’t mean they are ready to go peacefully. Mystical and moving, The Cemetery of Untold Stories shows why some stories must be told no matter how hard you try to bury them.

Buy Now : The Cemetery of Untold Stories on Bookshop | Amazon

Village Weavers , Myriam J. A. Chancy (April 2)

For fans of Elena Ferrante : Myriam J. A. Chancy’s Village Weavers is a wistful look at a complicated female friendship that spans decades and continents. Growing up in1940s Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Gertie and Sisi are the best of friends until a devastating secret that bonds their families tears them apart. The book follows the two women as they fall in and out of one another’s lives amid a violent dictatorship, and struggle with infertility and terminal illness. When Sisi gets an unexpected call from Gertie in 2002, decades after they last spoke, she must decide whether she is ready to forgive—or forget—all that they have shared.

Buy Now : Village Weavers on Bookshop | Amazon

Sociopath , Patric Gagne (April 2)

Writer and former therapist Patric Gagne first discovered she was a sociopath in college. But, in her provocative debut memoir, Sociopath , she admits that there were signs long before she was diagnosed. With incredible candor, she details the violent outbursts she exhibited as a child that would lead to near run-ins with the law in her teens and 20s. “Most of the time I felt nothing,” she writes, “so I did bad things to make the nothingness go away.” Despite her lifelong lack of empathy, shame, and guilt, she has become a loving wife and mother, something she knows doesn’t fit with pop culture’s portrayal of sociopaths as murderers, villains, and monsters. In her memoir, Gagne looks to destigmatize the often misunderstood mental disorder, now more commonly known as antisocial personality disorder , while offering compassion to those, like her, who are trying to change what it means to be a sociopath.

Buy Now : Sociopath on Bookshop | Amazon

We Loved It All , Lydia Millet (April 2)

Lydia Millet ’s first foray into nonfiction, We Loved It All: A Memory of Life, questions what humans lose when they ignore their connection to the animal kingdom. With great passion and indignation, the acclaimed novelist behind 2022’s Dinosaurs takes aim at corporations whose greed has endangered the world’s wildlife. She looks at how the “ Crying Indian” anti-litter campaign from the 1970s allowed big business to place the onus on consumers to clean up the environmental mess they played the largest role in causing. By sharing personal anecdotes about her own childhood, as well as the experiences of raising her son and daughter, Millet shows how caring about the smallest creatures that live among us is tied to the fight for economic justice around the globe. With her mournful yet often hopeful rumination on our current state of existence, Millet reminds us that we are not alone in this world.

Buy Now : We Loved It All on Bookshop | Amazon

Like Love , Maggie Nelson (April 2)

Like Love draws on two decades of Maggie Nelson’s career as a critic of art in all its forms. The collection of previously published work, arranged in chronological order, includes essays on, tributes to, and conversations with creatives the author deeply admires: musician Björk, poet Eileen Myles, fine artist Kara Walker , the late queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick , novelist Ben Lerner , philosopher Judith Butler , and writer and theater critic Hilton Als, whose words inspired the book’s title. When examining the art she loves, Nelson uses incisive and analytical prose, but her scholarly style doesn’t take away from the joy she feels for the work. “Words aren’t just what’s left,” she writes of why we need criticism. “They’re what we have to offer.”

Buy Now : Like Love on Bookshop | Amazon

Table for Two , Amor Towles (April 2)

Amor Towles ’ Table For Two is an intimate collection of six short stories that take place in early 2000s New York, and a 1930s Hollywood-set novella that picks up where his 2011 debut, Rules of Civility , left off. The book, which was written while he was meant to be working on his fourth novel , focuses on brief but fateful encounters between strangers, would-be business partners, and estranged relatives. Most of these conversations take place at a table set for two, the perfect place to share a tête-à-tête about forgery or bootlegging or even the blackmailing of screen legend Olivia de Havilland . Table For Two is a smorgasbord of deliciously mischievous tales imbued with Towles’ signature wit and worldliness.

Buy Now : Table for Two on Bookshop | Amazon

The House of Being , Natasha Trethewey (April 9)

In The House of Being, which was originally delivered as a 2022 prize lecture at Yale University, Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey takes readers back to her grandmother’s home outside of Gulfport, Miss., where the author learned to read and write. It was there that her neighbors flew Confederate flags with pride, and her late mother—whose death at the hands of her ex-husband was the focus of Trethewey’s best-selling 2020 memoir, Memorial Drive — took to singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” any time she passed one. It was also where, Trethewey would later learn, formerly enslaved men and women were educated after the Civil War, their stories lost to time because they had not been written down. With The House of Being, Trethewey doesn’t just explore the reasons why she writes. She also offers a compassionate argument for why we must all be the authors of our own stories.

Buy Now : The House of Being on Bookshop | Amazon

One of Us Knows , Alyssa Cole (April 16)

Best-selling author Alyssa Cole ’s latest novel, One of Us Knows, is a paranoia-filled murder mystery full of twists and turns. Preservationist Kenetria “Ken” Nash has taken a job as the caretaker of a gothic castle on a remote island on the Hudson River in the hopes of getting back on her feet. For the last six years, Ken has struggled with dissociative identity disorder, which causes her to, without much warning, “switch” between multiple identities. Lately, Ken has found it harder to keep her “headmates”—precocious toddler Keke, judgy perfectionist Della, and the sophisticated Solomon, to name a few—in check. When a man from Ken’s past is found dead in the historic home, she must enlist her headmates’ help in hopes of clearing her name, all the while knowing she could be the killer she is looking for.

Buy Now : One of Us Knows on Bookshop | Amazon

Knife , Salman Rushdie (April 16)

On Aug. 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was stabbed nearly 10 times while at a speaking engagement in western New York. With his new memoir, Knife, Rushdie writes about the violent attack that left him with PTSD , limited mobility in his left hand, and the loss of sight in his right eye, offering an intimate and often harrowing account of what happened that day and what life has been like for him since. (The trial for Rushdie’s alleged attacker , who has been charged with attempted murder, has been postponed due to the release of this book, since it can serve as potential evidence.) Rushdie has said that writing Knife was an important step in the healing process. “This was a necessary book for me to write,” he said in a statement . “A way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art.”

Buy Now : Knife on Bookshop | Amazon

I Just Keep Talking , Nell Irvin Painter (April 23)

For the past five decades, acclaimed writer, artist, historian, and critic Nell Irvin Painter’s work has felt ahead of its time. I Just Keep Talking, a decades-spanning collection of more than 40 of her previously published essays, shows just how prescient her work really was. The anthology includes a 1982 essay on the effect white educators’ reluctance to teach Black resistance would have on how the history of slavery is taught in America . In other pieces, she examines how Spike Lee ’s film Malcolm X reinvented the activist and breaks down the gender and racial stereotypes that hurt Anita Hill ’s case against Clarence Thomas during his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing. A more recent essay from 2022 offers a strong warning to Democrats: If you “jettison voting rights in order to court white voters without college degrees,” she writes, you’ll risk repeating the mistakes of Reconstruction . This insightful anthology shows why Painter, now 81 years old, is still one of the most important voices in America.

Buy Now : I Just Keep Talking on Bookshop | Amazon

Lucky , Jane Smiley (April 23)

As the title of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley ’s coming-of-age novel Lucky implies, protagonist Jodie Rattler has always been more fortunate than most. While attending college at Penn State in the 1960s, Jodie decides she’d like to become a folk singer, so she records a song that becomes a surprise hit. She soon finds herself living like a true bohemian, recording an album in New York, touring the country, and earning comparisons to musical luminaries like Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell . But as the pressure builds for her to leave school and focus on her music career full time, she finds herself questioning her future. Lucky offers a tender look at one young woman’s journey to understand who she has become and who she’d like to be when she finally grows up.

Buy Now : Lucky on Bookshop | Amazon

The Demon of Unrest , Erik Larson (April 30)

After tackling World War II by focusing on Winston Churchill’s leadership during the Blitz with The Splendid and the Vile , one of TIME’s best books of 2020 , Erik Larson returns with a historical nonfiction thriller set before the start of the U.S. Civil War . The Demon of Unrest looks at the chaotic five-month period between the November 1860 election of President Abraham Lincoln and the April 1861 surrender of Fort Sumter , which marked the official beginning of the war. Using journals, slave ledgers, plantation records, and secret correspondence, Larson offers an intriguing look at a young country on the brink of collapse. He reexamines the lead-up to the four-year conflict by putting the focus not only on the rebellion’s major players, but also on those on the periphery: Maj. Robert Anderson, the Union commander at Fort Sumter, Edmund Ruffin, an agricultural reformer and ardent secessionist, James H. Hammond, a senator and wealthy plantation owner from South Carolina, and Mary Boykin Chesnut, the wealthy wife of a lawyer and senator whose diary became an invaluable resource for the author.

Buy Now : The Demon of Unrest on Bookshop | Amazon

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Author Interviews

Don winslow ends trilogy, and his writing career, with final novel 'city in ruins'.

Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon talks to best-selling suspense author Don Winslow about what he says is his final novel, "City in Ruins."

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Danny Ryan, who's been a Rhode Island mobster, dockworker and fugitive from the law, is now a pillar of the community in Las Vegas. He's got a palatial home to which good citizens come to pay homage and enjoy his hospitality, his young son he loves and the companionship - well, three times a week, anyway - of an accomplished and compelling woman he respects. What could possibly go wrong? "City In Ruins" is the third and final novel in the bestselling Danny Ryan trilogy by Don Winslow. It follows "City On Fire" and "City Of Dreams," and Don Winslow says quite explicitly, "City Of Ruins" is my final book - no loopholes I could detect. He joins us now from Julian, Calif. Thanks so much for being with us.

DON WINSLOW: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

SIMON: The book opens with an implosion, a famous old Las Vegas hotel, now owned by Danny Ryan, being brought down from the inside. Is implosion a kind of theme for Danny Ryan's life, too?

WINSLOW: Yeah, it sure is. Looking over the arc of these three books, I think we're looking at a certain kind of self-destruction with dynamite, if you will, or explosives that were laid many years earlier on a long fuse, to torture the metaphor, and so implosion's definitely a theme.

SIMON: In earlier books, Danny had used what I'll just refer to as ill-gotten gains from a criminal enterprise to buy his way into a respectable hotel and gaming enterprise. He's got a dream. In fact, a hotel - I guess it's called the Dream in Italian.

WINSLOW: It is. Yeah, Il Sogno.

SIMON: Tell us about this place he wants to bring into being.

WINSLOW: Well, he wants to bring into being a new kind of megahotel where people walk in and it's literally a dream with images shifting constantly on the walls of beauty and action and all kinds of things. And I think it's reflective of his own dream of trying to create a new kind of life for himself and for his son.

SIMON: What stands in the way?

WINSLOW: Well, a number of things. For one thing, this valuable piece of real estate that this old hotel sat on is critical to power on the Las Vegas Strip. And he basically undermines a rival in order to acquire it. And then it turns out that both Danny and this rival have mob ties from the past that each of them is trying to escape and trying to leave behind him, and neither one of them can. And so those things really get in the way of Danny's dream.

SIMON: You've written so many other books over the years, including "Savages," "The Force," "The Cartel," bestsellers made into screen properties. What's kept you coming back to Danny Ryan?

WINSLOW: You know, it took me almost 30 years to complete this trilogy. You know, it's funny. You look back on your life. When I started the Danny Ryan books, my now-adult and married son was a toddler. What I was - set out to do was to write a fully contemporary crime epic that took its stories and characters, however, from the Greek and Roman classics, principally the Aeneid, but also the Odyssey and the Iliad and certain Greek tragic dramas. I kept failing at it. I would write some of the book, and some of it worked, and a lot of it didn't. And so at times, I was discouraged, thinking that either, A, it was a bad idea, or, B, it was a good idea and I didn't have the chops to carry it out. But I kept coming back to it 'cause I couldn't leave it behind. And then later on, a couple of decades down the road - you know, I live mostly in California - I started to go back to Rhode Island, where a lot of the first book is set, and I fell in love with the place again, and I felt that I could write it, perhaps in a better and more mature way than I could have done 20 years earlier.

SIMON: Did you feel a kinship with Danny?

WINSLOW: I think so. You know, I grew up with a lot of Danny'. I played pond hockey with them. I went to the beaches with them, you know, to the bars and restaurants and all kinds of things. So it's funny how little self-awareness you can have. The second volume of this book, "City Of Dreams," is basically Danny wandering the country trying to find a place to set his feet. I was deep into writing the third book before I looked back on the second book and realized how connected I was to Danny in that regard. You know, I left Rhode Island when I was 17 and spent decades wandering not only the country but the world, doing various kinds of jobs trying to make a living, trying without a notable degree of success to become a writer and finally kind of made that happen and found a place, if you will, to set my feet.

SIMON: You mentioned all the jobs you had. You were a private eye in Times Square.

WINSLOW: Yes, sir.

SIMON: Is that as exciting as it sounds, or is it a lot of keyhole peeping?

WINSLOW: (Laughter) Not too much keyhole peeping, thank God. You know, I didn't do what they call matrimonial work. But, no, it was not romantic at all. I was basically what is known as a street rat. And so I started that by investigating embezzlement and thefts in cinemas and legit movie theaters on Times Square - there were a few in those days - and then graduated, if you want to call it that, to being a troll. I would walk around Times Square trying to get mugged, and there were big tough guys, which I am not, behind me jumping in like riders at the rodeo and then eventually chasing runaways and trying to get to them before the pimps did.

SIMON: By the way, not that I'm interested in doing this, how do you arrange to get mugged?

WINSLOW: (Laughter) Well, for one thing, you arrange to be 5'6 and 130 pounds. That helps. And then you walk around looking like you don't know where you're going, like you're a tourist, with a wallet prominently in your back pants pocket.

SIMON: Wow. Sounds like it was indispensable to your literature.

WINSLOW: In some ways. You know, I mean, I think that being a PI, and then later I did it out in California, out here, on a much higher kind of level. But it got me in that world. I got to know cops and crooks and street people and lawyers and judges and courtrooms and all of that. But I think the most important influence it had on my work was in terms of investigation itself. I learned how to do research. I learned how to interview people. And the same skills that I would have used as an investigator are the skills that I brought to researching the novels.

SIMON: All of this steers us to asking about your goodbye. The acknowledgments you write include hundreds of people, parents...

WINSLOW: Yes.

SIMON: ...readers, old teachers...

WINSLOW: Sure.

SIMON: ...Even your agent.

WINSLOW: Especially my agent. Yeah.

SIMON: And as you say, goodbyes are hard. So why are you retiring?

WINSLOW: It's the confluence of two streams, if you will. One is that having finished this trilogy felt like an ending to me. It felt like, yeah, kind of my life's work. The second, though, major stream, and probably more important one, is that I just think that we're at a time in this country of crisis and a time where democracy is under a severe threat. And I think that the response to that needs to be more immediate than one can do in a novel, you know? You know, I'm not young. I'm 70. And I think whatever energies and time I have are better spent in that fight.

SIMON: Don Winslow, his new and insists his last novel, "City In Ruins." Thanks so much for being with us, and thanks for everything.

WINSLOW: Thank you very much. That's gracious of you to say.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CASCADE")

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The Winds of Winter: Everything We Know About the Next Game of Thrones Book

Winter is (eventually... hopefully) coming..

The Winds of Winter, the long, long-awaited sixth book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, is among the most-anticipated works of fiction. The next entry in the fantasy saga on which HBO’s Game of Thrones was based has been in the works since Book 5, A Dance with Dragons, which was released back in 2011. In the 13 years since, HBO aired Seasons 2-8 of Game of Thrones and Season 1 ( and soon 2 ) of its first GoT spinoff series, House of the Dragon.

While Martin continues work on the next A Song of Ice and Fire novel, we’ve compiled an overview of everything we know about The Winds of Winter, from Martin’s comments on the book’s length and publishing timeline to the story’s characters and differences from the show.

• When will it come out?
• How long will it be?
• Story details
• Book vs. TV series

Winds of Winter Release Date

There is no release date or window for The Winds of Winter.

Martin and his publishers initially hoped to have the manuscript completed by the end of October 2015 in order to release Winds the following March ahead of Game of Thrones: Season 6, according to Martin . That soft deadline then turned to the end of 2015, which also came and went without a completed manuscript. In January 2017 , he expressed optimism that it’d be out before that year’s end. In 2020, the author aimed to finish the project's initial work by 2021 , though that timeline didn’t pan out. This seems to be the last time Martin made a public estimation for when Winds will be published.

In October 2022, Martin said he was about 75% done with the manuscript. Little progress was seemingly made over the next year, as Martin announced in November 2023 that 1,100 pages had been completed — the same amount he mentioned in a December 2022 appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert . Martin last mentioned Winds in a December 2023 blog post , in which he stated he’d been working on the book in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he resides.

Do you think George R.R. Martin will finish A Song of Ice and Fire?

Winds of winter length.

The Winds of Winter will be around 1,500 pages. Martin said, as of November 2023, he had written roughly 1,100 pages and had “ hundreds more pages to go ." The author has said the final two A Song of Ice and Fire books will collectively come in at over 3,000 pages.

Should The Winds of Winter come in at 1,500 pages, it’d be the longest A Song of Ice and Fire book so far. The current longest is the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, which was just over 1,000 pages in its original hardcover release.

Winds of Winter Story

There are no spoilers in this section, save for the names of characters who will appear in The Winds of Winter.

The Winds of Winter will continue the events of the fourth and fifth books: A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. (Books 4 and 5 followed different characters but narratively ran parallel to each other.) Martin, speaking with Smarter Travel in 2012, said Winds will start with a bang:

“There were a of cliffhangers at the end of A Dance with Dragons. Those will be resolved very early. I’m going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice [between the forces of Stannis Baratheon and Roose Bolton in and around Winterfell] and the battle at Meereen — the battle of Slaver’s Bay [between the forces of Daenerys Targaryen and the slavers of Yunkai across the Narrow Sea].”

The 25 Best Game of Thrones Episodes

Daenerys Targaryen’s and Tyrion Lannister’s paths will finally cross “in a way,” Martin told EW in 2014, “but for much of the book they’re still apart. They both have quite large roles to play here. Tyrion has decided that he actually would like to live, for one thing, which he wasn’t entirely sure of during the last book, and he’s now working toward that end — if he can survive the battle that’s breaking out all around him. And Dany has embraced her heritage as a Targaryen and embraced the Targaryen words. So they’re both coming home.”

In that same interview, Martin confirmed the Dothraki will return “in a big way” and, as the end of Book 5 suggests, “a lot of stuff is happening at The Wall.” On a more direct yet less consequential note, Martin has said Winds will introduce his “interesting take on unicorns,” according to Winter Is Coming .

Overall, Martin has said to expect things to “get worse before they get better.” “There are a lot of dark chapters right now in the book that I’m writing,” Martin said at the Guadalajara International Book Fair in 2016 (via EW ). “It is called The Winds of Winter, and I’ve been telling you for 20 years that winter was coming. Winter is the time when things die, and cold and ice and darkness fill the world, so this is not going to be the happy feel-good that people may be hoping for. Some of the characters [are] in very dark places.”

Winds of Winter Characters

As of 2016 , Martin was not planning to include any new point-of-view characters in Winds. Here’s a quick list of all the characters confirmed to have chapters told from their perspective, per Martin’s hitherto released preview chapters, blog posts, and public readings:

• Tyrion Lannister
• Cersei Lannister
• Jaime Lannister and/or Brienne of Tarth
• Sansa Stark
• Theon Greyjoy
• Asha Greyjoy
• Victarion Greyjoy
• Aeron Greyjoy/Damphair
• Barristan Selmy
• Arianne Martell
• Jon Connington

While unconfirmed, it’s all but certain Daenerys Targaryen will again be a point-of-view character. Other potential POV characters include Davos Seaworth, Samwell Tarly, and Melisandre. We also know Robb Stark’s wife Jeyne Westerling (replaced in the TV series by a character named Talisa Maegyr) will appear in the prologue, according to Hypable , though Martin didn’t say the section would be written from her perspective.

House of the Dragon Season 2 First Look Images

Winds of Winter: Book vs. TV Show

Given the larger cast and overall scope of the book series, Winds of Winter will differ from what viewers experienced in Game of Thrones . Martin has said characters who died in the series won’t die in the books, and characters who survived in Game of Thrones won’t survive in the books. New characters will be introduced; characters who never appeared on-screen will have important roles to play in the story to come.

Martin wrote about the topic in length in a 2022 blog post :

What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series. Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in Game of Thrones you will also see in The Winds of Winter (though maybe not in quite the same ways)… but much of the rest will be quite different.

And really, when you think about it, this was inevitable. The novels are much bigger and much much more complex than the series. Certain things that happened on HBO will not happen in the books. And vice versa. I have viewpoint characters in the books never seen on the show: Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell, Areo Hotah, Jon Connington, Aeron Damphair. They will all have chapters, and the things they do and say will impact the story and the major characters who were on the show. I have legions of secondary characters, not POVs but nonetheless important to the plot, who also figure in the story: Lady Stoneheart, Young Griff, the Tattered Prince, Penny, Brown Ben Plumm, the Shavepate, Marwyn the Mage, Darkstar, Jeyne Westerling. Some characters you saw in the show are quite different than the versions in the novels. Yarra Greyjoy is not Asha Greyjoy, and HBO’s Euron Greyjoy is way, way, way, way different from mine. Quaithe still has a part to play. So does Rickon Stark. And poor Jeyne Poole. And… well, the list is long. (And all this is part of why Winds is taking so long. This is hard, guys).

Oh, and there will be new characters as well. No new viewpoints, I promise you that, but with all these journeys and battles and scheming to come, inevitably our major players will be encountering new people in lands far and near.

One thing I can say, in general enough terms that I will not be spoiling anything: not all of the characters who survived until the end of Game of Thrones will survive until the end of A Song of Ice & Fire, and not all of the characters who died on Game of Thrones will die in A Song of Ice & Fire. (Some will, sure. Of course. Maybe most. But definitely not all.) ((Of course, I could change my mind again next week, with the next chapter I write. That’s gardening)).

And the ending? You will need to wait until I get there. Some things will be the same. A lot will not.

Martin’s comments should be good news for the many fans who felt the quickened pace of Game of Thrones’ final season diluted the character arcs and overarching narratives that came before it.

One last tease: Martin told IGN in 2016 that The Winds of Winter will feature a major twist that couldn’t be done in the show. “It’s something that involves a couple characters,” said Martin, “one of whom is dead in the show [by the end of Season 5] but not dead in the books.”

A Dream of Spring and Other Future Works

A Dream of Spring is the seventh and final book Martin has planned for A Song of Ice and Fire. It, too, is expected to be 1,500 pages or more, according to Martin. As for the story, Martin offered this during the Guadalajara International Book Fair in 2016: “I’m not going to tell you how I’m going to end my book, but I suspect the overall flavor is going to be as much bittersweet as it is happy.” There is no timetable for its release.

In addition to finishing Winds and preparing for A Dream of Spring, Martin is authoring a second volume of his Targaryen history, potentially titled Blood & Fire, and additional stories in his Tales of Dunk and Egg series of novellas, which serves as the basis for HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones spinoff, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms . Martin continues to serve as an editor of Wild Cards, a shared-universe sci-fi book series he created in 1987. He’s also a producer for two active TV series: House of the Dragon and AMC’s Dark Winds.

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

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Harvard removes human skin from the binding of 19th-century book

The book, bound in human flesh and housed in Houghton Library for almost a century, was so popular that it had inspired hazing rituals at Harvard University.

College students employed by the library were asked to retrieve the book without being told that it was bound in human skin, as a form of hazing, decades ago.

Now — ten years after scientists at Harvard confirmed that the 19th-century French book about the destiny of the human soul is bound in human skin — the original binding has been removed.

The binding was removed “due to the ethically fraught nature of the book’s origins and subsequent history,” Harvard said on Wednesday.

Taken from the back of a woman , a psychiatric patient in a French hospital who died of a stroke in the 1800s, the skin has been placed “into respectful temporary storage,” until the library decides how to dispose of it in a dignified manner.

The removal follows years of debate about how the university should handle the binding, and a 2022 Harvard report focusing on human remains in university collections, which was spurred by the reckoning with how racism, slavery and colonialism helped establish universities and museums .

The book bound in human skin was a copy of “Des Destinées de L’âme,” by Arsène Houssaye, a 19th-century French novelist and poet. Houssaye gifted the printed text of the book to his friend, Ludovic Bouland, in the early 1880s.

Bouland, a doctor, bound the book in human skin that he had acquired himself while still a medical student, according to his handwritten note inserted into the volume. The note also describes the process used to treat the skin so it could be used to bind the text.

“A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering,” Bouland wrote. “By looking carefully you easily distinguish the pores of the skin.”

The note also stated that nothing had been stamped on the cover in order to “preserve its elegance.”

Harvard College Library accepted the book from John B. Stetson, an American diplomat and Harvard graduate, in 1934. It was transferred to Houghton Library in 1944 and formally donated to Harvard in 1954.

In 2014, scientists confirmed that the book is “without a doubt” bound in human skin.

Then, Harvard had carried a blog post titled “Caveat Lecter” announcing “good news for fans of anthropodermic bibliopegy, bibliomaniacs and cannibals alike,” according to “ Dark Archives ,” a book written by Megan Rosenbloom, a librarian and expert on anthropodermic bibliopegy, the practice of binding books in human skin.

Rosenbloom is also part of the Anthropodermic Book Project , which tests alleged anthropodermic books to see if they’re of human origin. So far, the project has confirmed 18 books to be bound in human skin.

One of the strongest voices critiquing the blog belonged to Paul Needham, a rare book librarian at Princeton University. He said that the blog post should be deleted and the book’s cover buried.

“Although preservation is a central responsibility of libraries and museums, it is not one isolated from wider questions of ethics,” Needham wrote in the New York Review of Books. “There are times with the ‘good’ of preservation must be weighed against other compelling responsibilities.”

The library’s blog post can no longer be accessed on the university website.

Following the 2022 report, Houghton Library reviewed the book and found that the human remains used in the Houssaye book’s binding no longer belong in the Harvard Library collections, and “Des destinées de l’âme” was disbound.

“The core problem with the volume’s creation was a doctor who didn’t see a whole person in front of him and carried out an odious act of removing a piece of skin from a deceased patient, almost certainly without consent, and used it in a book binding that has been handled by many for more than a century,” said Tom Hyry, a librarian at Harvard, in a news release . “We believe it’s time the remains be put to rest.”

The human skin used to bind the book is not available, in person or digitally, to any researcher and the library has removed all images of the skin from its catalogue, online blog posts and other channels.

The book will be available to researchers, without its cover.

On Wednesday, the library apologized for objectifying and compromising the dignity of the woman whose skin was used for the binding while the book was in their care.

The library outlined the ways in which it failed to care for the book’s binding.

This included making the book available to anyone who asked for it regardless of why they wanted to borrow it, and employing a “sensationalistic, morbid, and humorous tone,” in the blog post about the binding.

The university said it is conducting additional biographical and provenance research into the anonymous female patient, the book, and Bouland.

Additionally, it is consulting with French authorities “to determine a final respectful disposition of these human remains.”

Even after more than 90 years, it may still “take months, and perhaps longer,” for the library to find a resting place for the remains.

Netflix's '3 Body Problem' makes some big changes from the book. Here's how the show and novels differ.

• "3 Body Problem" is based on Liu Cixin's "Remembrance of Earth's Past" novel trilogy. 
• Here are nine of the biggest differences between the show and books.
• Warning: Major spoilers ahead for season one of "3 Body Problem" and Liu Cixin's novels.

Netflix's "3 Body Problem" is an adaptation of Liu Cixin's wide-ranging "Remembrance of Earth's Past" trilogy of novels. And while the show hews close to its source material in some instances, it wildly diverges in others.

The series was adapted for the small screen by "Game of Thrones" showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, in addition to "True Blood" writer Alexander Woo. Liu's original novels are strongly anchored in China: They begin during the Cultural Revolution , something that carries over to the show, and primarily feature Chinese characters in the modern day.

"3 Body Problem" moves the show's focus away from China to a more global stage, and its modern-day sequences take place primarily in England rather than China. As a result, the show features a global cast.

Here are the other major differences between the books and the show. Warning — major spoilers ahead for all eight episodes of "3 Body Problem," and Liu Cixin's novels, which will likely serve as a roadmap for a potential season two .

The show splits up one of the book's main characters into several different people

In "The Three-Body Problem," the first of Liu's novels, Wang Miao is one of the primary characters. He's a nanomaterials researcher who starts to see a countdown in his photographs after becoming embroiled in an investigation into the deaths of scientists alongside gruff police officer Da Shi. In the process, he begins playing an immersive video game about a world within a three-star system. Wang Miao learns that the world — and its inhabitants — are real, and is brought into an organization preparing for their arrival on Earth.

Wang Miao maps most closely onto Augustina ("Auggie") Salazar, played by Eiza González in the show. Auggie is working on developing nanofiber technology — that is, until she stops her research when she begins seeing a countdown in her field of vision. In both the books and the show, it's Wang Miao and Auggie's nanofibers that get put to use slicing apart the Judgment Day in order to gain intel on the aliens.

However, parts of Wang Miao's character were also incorporated into Jin Cheng, played by Jess Hong. In the show, Jin is the one who first plays the virtual reality game, and she does so under the name "Copernicus," Wang Miao's player name. When she progresses far enough in the game, she's also told the truth about the aliens, serving as a double agent.

Jin Cheng also bears similarities to another character in the novels

Wang Miao aside, Jin Cheng more precisely corresponds to the character Cheng Xin, who doesn't appear until "Death's End," the third book in the series.

In the books, Cheng Xin proposes the Staircase Project, an initiative to launch a probe towards the alien fleet. She's also the one who persuades her terminally ill former classmate Yun Tianming to participate in the Staircase Project.

Speaking of Yun Tianming, he got turned into Will Downing

"3 Body Problem's" answer to Yun Tianming is Will Downing, part of the cohort of Oxford alums in the show. He's quit research to teach physics — that is, until he receives a terminal cancer diagnosis. After coming into a large amount of money following their friend Jack Rooney's death, Will purchases a star for Jin Cheng and agrees to participate in the Staircase Project.

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Yun Tianming also purchases a star for Cheng Xin that becomes important later in "Death's End." She enters hibernation after the launch of the Staircase Project but gets woken up when an astronomer discovers that her star has planets.

Saul is based on a character named Luo Ji

Saul, another member of the Oxford Five, spends much of the show's first season mucking around. However, in its final episode, he's named a "Wallfacer," a position created by the United Nations that gives three individuals unlimited power to fight the San-Ti. The trick? They can't tell anyone their plans due to the San-Ti's observational powers. By the end of the first season, Saul isn't too keen on being a Wallfacer and doesn't understand why he was chosen.

In the books, he most closely resembles Luo Ji, the primary character of the second novel, "The Dark Forest." The UN bizarrely chooses Luo Ji to act as a Wallfacer, and he shirks the responsibility after realizing that he can't turn down the role. Eventually, he's the one to temporarily solve the Trisolaran problem, locking them into a deterrence-based stalemate.

The aliens are called 'Trisolarans' in the books

In the English translation of Liu's novels, the alien colonizers are referred to as "trisolarans," as a reference to their tri-solar world. The organization preparing for their arrival on Earth is the ETO: the Earth-Trisolaris Organization. However, in the Netflix series, they're called the "San-Ti."

The moniker in the show is a reference to Ye Wenjie's first contact with the aliens while she was based in China. "Sān tǐ-rén" means "three-body people" in Chinese.

The show doesn't explore the factions of the ETO

In the books, the ETO has a few different factions: the Adventists, who want the Trisolarans to destroy humanity; the Redemptionists, who religiously worship the Trisolarans; and the Survivors, who serve the Trisolarans in the hope that they and their descendants may be spared when they invade.

In the show, things are a bit simpler. Mike Evans is a leader of the movement, while Ye Wenjie is its founder. The members of the organization refer to the San-Ti as their "Lord," and some, like Tatiana (Marlo Kelly), display religious zealousness.

Sophon comes in much earlier in the show

In both the show and the books, sophons are protons that the San-Ti have turned into supercomputers. They're sentient, and make the San-Ti essentially omniscient on Earth.

In the books, Sophon doesn't manifest as a physical character until the third novel in the series, "Death's End." In the book, she's a robot representative of the Trisolarans on Earth.

However, Sophon, played by Sea Shimooka, shows up in season one of the show as the katana-wielding game master. She's also the voice of the San-Ti during conversations with Evans. Shimooka told Business Insider in a recent interview that she drew from performances like Alicia Vikander in "Ex Machina" and Evan Rachel Wood in "Westworld" while crafting her approach to the character.

"Where we see her in season 1 is so far from where we see her down the line," Shimooka told BI. "I really had to rely on the scripts the writers gave me. When I had finished the books by the time we started filming, I was glad that I had already zeroed in on her calm demeanor even if her arc changes dramatically."

The VR headsets are way simpler in the series

The silver, metallic headsets of "3 Body Problem" are one of its most prominent symbols. In the show, they're completely seamless, transporting the viewer into a hyper-realistic virtual world immediately after donning them.

In the book, things aren't quite so advanced. Wang Miao plays the video game through a V-suit, composed of a "panoramic viewing helmet and a haptic feedback suit." This suit is able to mimic hot and cold temperatures, as well as physical sensations like getting hit.

"In the books, it's meant to be kind of a slightly advanced consumer technology where it would be as if everybody had an Oculus headset and this was a game that showed up," Weiss told BI during a roundtable interview.

"Whereas we'd made a conscious choice to make something a lot, lot farther along than that," he continued. "Something that obviously was tied in its origins to the alien civilizations that we were in contact and conflict with. So that meant photo-real, or at least a hyper-real kind of feeling."

In the show, Ye Wenjie has a child with Mike Evans, not a Red Coast colleague

In "3 Body Problem," Ye Wenjie's daughter Vera Ye dies by suicide in the first episode. We later learn that her father was Mike Evans, the oil heir and one of the leaders of the organization preparing for the San-Ti's arrival.

In the book, Vera Ye is Yang Dong, Ye Wenjie's daughter who also dies by suicide early in the novel. She's the daughter of Yang Weining, one of Ye Wenjie's supervisors at the Red Coast base, whom Ye Wenjie married during her time there.

"3 Body Problem" is now streaming on Netflix .

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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